While the analysis of primary sources is considered a cornerstone of university-level historical thinking, there is limited empirical research on how students actually develop the specialized skills needed to interpret complex artifacts, such as period-specific textile fragments and weaving patterns, during routine classroom instruction. Understanding how these material records are decoded is essential to mastering the broader socio-economic narratives of the industrial era. Based on an exploratory qualitative design, this study explores the development of undergraduates' historical sources analysis ability in classroom learning and discourse. The study is based on observations of an undergraduate course on American Military History at Beijing Normal University and uses grounded theory as its main analytical tool. Using this method, through a three-step coding procedure, the analysis reveals regularities in teachers' pedagogical moves, learners' analytic work, and classroom discourse practices. The researcher generated three related themes: the teacherresponsive scaffolding mechanism, the mechanism through which students develop autonomous analytical ability, and the scene-driven scenario construction mechanism. The research results indicate that the development of students' ability to analyze historical sources is not merely through contact with texts, but through continuous interaction between instructional support and learner agency in a specific classroom environment. Historical literacy does not function as a linear process but emerges from the contextual adjustment of the teacher's explanatory role and the student's explanatory participation, where teaching guidance and the student's initiative mutually shape the learning process.

historical source analysis, undergraduate history education, grounded theory