RELEVANCE THE POTENTIAL OF THE NORTH SUMATRA PROVINCE

MUSEUM AS THE SOURCE OF LEARNING

HISTORY of INDONESIA
IN THE MIDDLE HIGH SCHOOL

Citra Arniathy Laoli, Ajat Sudrajat, Risky Setiawan

History Education Department, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta
citraarniathy.2018@student.uny.ac.id, ajatsudrajat@uny.ac.id, riskysetiawan@uny.ac.id

ABSTRACT ABSTRAK

This research was conducted based on the
researchers' assumptions about the low
utilization of the North Sumatra Province
State Museum in supporting the learning
activities of Indonesian History in schools.
One contributing factor is the understanding
of high school history teachers in North
Sumatra in general and Medan City in
particular about the potential of the
museum as an excellent source of learning
in supporting the process of learning history
in schools. To optimize the use of museums
in the study of Indonesian History, a study
on the potential relevance of the museums
of the North Sumatra Province Province is
needed. Data collected through observation
and interviews. The results showed that the
North Sumatra Provincial Museum has a
collection, program activities, and
infrastructure that are relevant to the
Indonesian History curriculum.
Penelitian ini dilaksanakan berdasarkan
asumsi peneliti terhadap rendahnya
pemanfaatan Museum Negeri Provinsi
Sumatera Utara dalam menunjang kegiatan
pembelajaran Sejarah Indonesia di sekolah.
Salah satu faktor penyebabnya adalah
pemahaman guru-guru sejarah SMA di
wilayah Sumatera Utara pada umumnya
dan Kota Medan pada khususnya belum
baik tentang potensi musem sebagai sumber
belajar yang sangat baik dalam menunjang
proses pembelajaran sejarah di sekolah.
Untuk mengoptimalkan pemanfaatan
museum dalam pembelajaran Sejarah
Indonesia diperlukan sebuah kajian tentang
relevansi potensi yang dimiliki museum
Provinsi Negeri Provinsi Sumatera Utara.
Data dikumpulkan melalui obeservasi dan
wawancara. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan
bahwa Museum Provinsi Sumatera Utara
memiliki koleksi, program kegiatan dan
prasarana yang relevan dengan kurikulum
Sejarah Indonesia.

Keywords: learning resources, Indonesian Kata kunci: sumber belajar, Sejarah

History, State Museum of Indonesia, Museum Negeri
North Sumatra Province. Provinsi Sumatera Utara.
INTRODUCTION
Interest in visiting museums in
Indonesia is still low. The Directorate of
Preservation of Indonesian Cultural and
Museum Preservation in Kompas Daily
(19 September 2015) confirmed that
museum visitors were still outnumbered
by the number of drug users in
Indonesia. Bondan Kanumayoso as
Secretary of the Department of History
of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences,
University of Indonesia also said that
the interest of Indonesian people to visit
the museum is still low. Based on
statistics from visitors to the North
Sumatra Provincial Museum, the
number of visitors has decreased every
year. In 2015, visitors to the North
Sumatra Province Museum numbered
90,270 people, in 2016 the total number
of visitors to the museum was 72,649
people and continues to decline until
2017 by 57,113 people.
Based on the research conducted
by Paramitasari (2016), it was affirmed
that out of 163 respondents chosen
randomly, 134 people had an interest in
visiting the museum with a record that
50% had not visited and 27 people were
not at all interested or reluctant to visit
the museum. One of the factors causing
the reluctance of some people to visit
the museum is the assumption that the
museum is an unattractive,
uncomfortable and boring place. Some
factors of this paradigm are caused by
early socialization and education about
the role and function of museums in the
community that has not been well
implanted.
Learning Indonesian history can
be more effective and efficient with
constructive learning. Learning can
attract students' interest if it involves a
direct experience of students in building
knowledge and values to be achieved in
the learning that is being carried out.
Learning resources have an important
role in the success of the learning
process. Ministry of National Education
(1983: 7) outlines the importance of
utilizing learning resources in learning
by providing concrete and direct
learning trips to students and presenting
something that is not possible to be held
or visited and seen directly by students,
can add to and broaden students'
horizons and stimulate to think, behave
and develop further.
The museum is very potential to
arouse the student’s motivation in
learning history. This relates to the
position of the museum as a document-
based learning resource. Kartodirdjo
(2011: 2) explains the document has a
narrow and broad meaning. Documents
in the narrow sense are verbal data
collections in the form of writing, while
in the broad sense are all primary
historical sources such as monuments,
artifacts, photographs, tapes, and so on.
Thus the intended historical document
is in a broad form that is all
manifestations of the primary source of
history. With document-based learning,
history learning will be based on
scientific learning that puts forward the
process of discovery and understanding
of history directly by students.
The complexity of the collection
owned by the museum can facilitate the
understanding of subject matter in
students. Historical artifacts contained
in the museum can be used as primary
learning resources. Therefore the
subject matter of Indonesian History
can be contextualized to students
through museums (Ahmad, 2010: 108).
Based on research conducted by
Mursidi (2010), it was concluded that
historical learning based on museum
visits can arouse students' historical
awareness. Septian Dwi Prasetyo (2016)
concludes his research that the use of
museums in history learning has proven
to be effective in increasing students
'historical interest in learning,
increasing historical knowledge, critical
thinking skills and improving students'
historical learning outcomes. Likewise
with the research of Siti Nur Azizah
(2017) it was concluded that learning
through the use of museums is very
effective in increasing the historical
awareness of students in high schools.
The existence of the museum
should be utilized optimally to support
the educational process. Sukirman
(2017) explains the various roles of
museums in education as authentic
learning resources, means of character
education and means of raising students'
historical awareness. That's because the
museum with its various collections can
contain all the main values of characters
that are quite religious, nationalist and
reflect the values of cooperation in the
past. Students can observe and imagine,
analyze and live the values contained in
the collections available in the museum
as a monumental work of the
predecessors.
The International Council of
Museums (2006) has formulated the
importance of the existence of museums
as an institution whose role is to collect,
preserve, research, communicate and
exhibit evidence of human material and
its environment for study, research and
pleasure. The definition of the Museum
in Government Regulation No.19 of
1995 is an institution for storing,
maintaining, securing and utilizing
material evidence of human culture and
nature and the environment to support
efforts to protect and preserve national
cultural wealth (Dirjen Kemdikbud,
2012: 17).
Through Core Competencies (KI)
and Basic Competencies (KD) in the
subjects of Indonesian History, students
are required to be able to master
competencies related to the ability to
emulate the figures of struggle, increase
gratitude for God's gift in the history of
the nation in all fields, own and develop
social attitudes and responsibilities as
well as caring for the nation's cultural
work, love for peace, honesty,
responsive and proactive in
development, willing to sacrifice,
strengthen the spirit of nationality,
increase a sense of unity and strengthen
national pride. Thus learning history is
closely related to efforts to improve the
character of students. These characters
can be built through historical empathy
that can be obtained by students through
learning history.
The values that will be built on
students through learning History of
Indonesia can be reached through
document-based learning. Aditya N.
Widiadi, et.al, (2013) explained that the
importance of document-based history
learning to increase students' historical
awareness. Kartodirdjo (2011: 2) stated
that the document has a specific and
common meaning. Documents in the
specific sense are verbal data
collections in the form of writing, while
in common sense are all primary
historical sources such as monuments,
artifacts, photographs, tapes, and so on.
Thus the intended historical document
is in a broad form that is all
manifestations of the primary source of
history. Keatinge (Phillips, 2007: 72)
not only advocates the use of historical
sources and evidence to make history
learning more interesting but at the
same time also equips students with the
methodology mastered by historians.
Learning Indonesian’s history
based museum is part of the reflection
learning effort. Reflective learning
(Boyd & Fales, 1983) is a process of
exploring one's conceptual
understanding that is obtained through
direct experience so that it gives birth to
an understanding of the object being
studied. This understanding will give
birth to historical empathy which then
shapes students' historical awareness.
Dale in the cone of experience theory
suggests that the learning process will
be more effective if learning can be
contextualized to students. The pyramid
of the effectiveness of learning
described in Figure 1.
Listen Audio
View Images
Watch Video
Attend Exhibit/Sites
Watch a demonstration
Participate in hands-on workshop
Design colaborative lesson
Simulate or model a reat experience
Design/perform a presentation-do the real thing
Image 1. Dale’s Cone of Experience
Source: Lee, 2017: 56
Based on the pyramid of
experience described by Dale, learning
activities by using the museum as a
source of learning history of Indonesia,
is more effective than just listening to
the teacher's explanation or just looking
at pictures. A study visit to the Museum
can encourage an increase in students'
interest in learning to lead them to an
effort to analyze their historical
processes that have occurred through
historical objects observed.
Endacot & Brooks (2013)
suggested that historical empathy is a
process of connectivity between
cognitive and affective students from
learning related to the past so that they
can understand and appreciate every life
choice and community's past policies in
living their lives. In the context of
learning through museums, reflection
learning is done with students reflecting
on the lives experienced today with
various simplicity of past life processes
or vice versa from the various traces of
national history in the form of historical
relics in the museum.
RESEARCH METHODS
The method used in this research is
descriptive qualitative with a
phenomenological approach. The
research aims to describe and analyze
the potential of museums as a source of
learning history in the 2013 curriculum
at the senior high school level. Research
data obtained through field studies and
literature studies. Field studies are
carried out by observation, interviews,
and documentation while literacy
studies by conducting studies and
analysis from various scientific sources
related to the use of museums in the
world of historical education. The first
step in the form of research is collecting
the potential data of the museum, then
analyzing it to find its relevance in the
Indonesian History curriculum. The
data validity test technique in this study
was conducted by referring to Miles &
Huberman's data triangulation. The
location of the study was carried out at
the North Sumatra Provincial Museum,
51 HM. Joni street, Teladan Baru
District of Meda Kota, Medan City,
North Sumatra Province.
THE POTENTIAL OF THE NORTH
SUMATRA PROVINCE STATE
MUSEUM
Indonesia is a large nation with very
complex travel history. One proof of
Indonesian history can be known from
the traces of historical relics which can
be found in special historical museums
in Indonesia. One museum that has
historical evidence of the journey of the
Indonesian people from pre-literacy to
reformation is the North Sumatra
Provincial Museum in Medan. The
museum began construction in 1954 and
was officially established in 1982.
Education is the main tool in
transforming historical evidence into
views and values of the younger
generation to continuing the nation's
fight for the future. it can be actualized
if historical education plays its role as a
means of building historical awareness
of students. Historical awareness can be
obtained if, in learning history, students
are facilitated to develop their historical
empathy.
The Museum of North Sumatera
has many historical collections
consisting of historical relics from the
pre-literacy era, the era of the Hindu-
Buddhist kingdom, the era of the
Islamic kingdom, the era of colonialism,
the struggle for independence, and the
era of reform. One of the most
important relics in this museum to be
used as a reference for learning sources
of Indonesian History is Makara.
Makara was the very first collection that
was inaugurated by President Soekarno
in 1954. The Makara is placed at both
ends of the stairs which functioned as
guards based on Hindu mythology
which considers Makara as the amount
of the Goddess Ganga in his time.
Makara was obtained from the site of
the Padang Lawas temple and can be a
source of learning the history of the
Hindu kingdom in the archipelago,
especially in the North Sumatra region.
Learning the History of Indonesia
through the Museum of North Sumatra
is very appropriate. it is fully supported
by the vision and mission of the
museum which aims to realize the
museum as a center of study. To support
the vision and mission, the museum
manager organizes a variety of
exhibition programs that are tailored to
the themes of Indonesia's historic day.
These activities can be utilized to
enhance students' proactive attitudes in
preserving historical and national
heritage traces.
The Museum of North Sumatra
has a collection of 6799 species in the
form of historical and cultural heritage
objects of the past. The whole collection
is very potential to be used as a source
of contextual learning for students. The
entire collection has been arranged
thematically and divided into 9 different
rooms. The first room is a room for pre-
literacy collection. In this room there
are various collections such as hand-
held axes, square axes, conch shells,
deer antlers, beads, hooks, jewelry and
replicas of ancient human fossils to the
dioramas of pre-literate community life.
Tracing the 2013 Curriculum Content
Standards for the subject of Indonesian
History, it is very appropriate learning
in class X to conduct learning in this
room, starting from Basic Competencies
(KD) 3.1 to 3.4 namely topics about the
lives of Indonesian people in pre-
literacy times.
The ancient historical relics of the
North Sumatra region are placed in the
room 2. The collection consists of
ancient historical relics of various
regions in North Sumatra such as
coffins and wooden statues from Nias,
pangalubalang from Batak Toba, single
panaluan (mystic sticks), mejans from
Pakpak in the form of statues from
human-shaped stones in the form of
riding animals that are considered
guardians. There is also a Batak
question which contains spells in the
past.
Various educational programs are
also organized by the museum manager.
There are thematic exhibitions
following the historic days of Indonesia,
for example, an exhibition about the
history of the struggle of the North
Sumatra people in gaining
independence which was held to
coincide at the moment of the
celebration of the independence of the
Republic of Indonesia. Through this
exhibition, it can be utilized in learning
Indonesian history related to the Basic
Competence of the Republic of
Indonesia's independence struggle.
Thus, students will be able to see and
interpret directly related to the struggle
of local leaders to achieve
independence. By knowing the warrior
figures from the region and knowing the
forms of the sacrifice they do will be
able to build admiration and empathy
for students so they will enthusiastically
and proudly emulate these values to
maintain the integrity of the nation and
increasingly love the Indonesian.
Some facilities can support the
history of learning for students, namely
the availability of a mini-theater in the
museum that can accommodate up to 50
spectators. This mini-theater can be
used to show films of the local and
national struggle. This facility is also
clearly very useful as a source of
learning when visiting museums in the
realm of studying Indonesian History.
Learning through local history will be
able to develop students' love for their
region and be able to understand the
historical connectivity of local struggles
with national history.
Research conducted by Hidayat et
al (2015) explains that there is a very
strong relationship between
understanding local history with
students' tolerance attitudes. One of the
importance of learning through the State
Museum of the Province of North
Sumatra is the collection exhibited in
the museum which is very rich and
represents the historical footprint of the
entire region in North Sumatra with
diverse ethnic groups. By visiting the
museum and studying the local
historical events of North Sumatra
Province, students will be able to see
the forms of travel and contributions
from other regions in the region, which
of course greatly affects the efforts to
build an attitude of respect for students
of the existence of other ethnic groups
with its history.
THE RELEVANCE OF THE
NORTH SUMATRA PROVINCE
STATE MUSEUM COLLECTION
IN THE INDONESIAN HISTORY
CURRICULUM.
Objects from the ancient North Sumatra
period can be used for learning in Class
X High School with Basic Competence
(KD) 3.4 about "understanding the
results and cultural values of pre-literate
communities in Indonesia and their
influence in the life of the nearest
environment". Specifically these relics
can be devoted to understanding the
beliefs of pre-literate society in the form
of anismism and dynamism. The
importance of understanding the history
of the past of its own region for the
current generation of learners who are
Generation Z because they have been
very difficult to understand the
continuity of change, including in the
development of history and culture.
This is important because the current
generation has not seen and experienced
life in the past.
Fourhook (2015) states that the Z
generation is a digital generation whose
life is synonymous with technology. For
this post-1995 generation of birth,
digital is almost similar to the air that is
inhaled at all times and spreads in all
aspects of their lives ranging from
lifestyle to outlook on life. Thus
learning about the meaning of the
continuing history of the nation from
the past is very much needed to be
understood by students at the current
high school level. Learning through the
historical relics of ancient regions of
their own regions, students are able to
reflect on themselves and appreciate
each development they are living in.
The other objects contained in the
Museum of the Province of North
Sumatra that can be used as a source of
learning are relics from the Hindu-
Buddhist era which are found in the
interior of North Sumatra. Artifacts
found in stone and bronze include
Buddha Statue, a replica of the
Lokanata Statue, Bodhissatwa Statue,
Garuda Statue. In addition, many
objects were also found from the
Chinese City site located in Medan
Labuhan District. The collections
consist of the Dhyani Buddha Amitabha
statue, the Laksmi statue and the Vishnu
statue made of stone. In addition, there
are many ceramic discoveries from the
site on display in the museum in room
3. The entire collection is very potential
to be used in the study of Indonesian
History in class X in Basic
Competencies (KD) 3.5 and 3.6 namely
the analysis of incoming and developing
theories and relics of Hindu and
Buddhist culture in Indonesia.
There are relics of Islamic culture
from the 9th to 11th centuries in the
fourth room. Some ancient artifacts and
gravestones were found from various
regions such as the Barus Site and
Central Tapanuli. Old Islamic-style
manuscripts from the handwriting and
miniature of the Kuni mosque from
Langkat Regency are in this room. So
learning Indonesian history about the
existence of culture and Islamic empire
in the North Sumatra region can be
learned by students well. Learning
History of Indonesia with basic
competencies 3.7 and 3.8 about the
process of entry and development of
Islamic culture in Indonesia is right to
be carried out using these artifacts as a
source of learning. Thus, the nature of
theoretical abstraction which is only
found in textbooks can be
contextualized by seeing firsthand the
physical evidence of the triumph of
Islamic culture in the past. The attitude
of tolerance in students can also be built
through museum visits. By
understanding different cultures,
students are able to appreciate every
cultural and religious diversity found in
Indonesia.
The traces of the legacy of
colonialism in Indonesia, especially in
North Sumatra are found in Room 5. In
the subject of Indonesian History, the
topic of colonialism is studied in Class
XI on basic competencies 3.1, 3.2 and
3.3. Through the collection of objects
from colonialism, students are able to
obtain a contextual picture of the
colonial efforts that have been
experienced by the Indonesian people.
In addition, the impact of learning
through physical evidence of the
struggle of the Indonesian nation is able
to increase the love of the motherland as
well as the students' critical attitude in
analyzing various factors that cause
Indonesia to be colonized and its
various impacts on Indonesia.
Historical objects that are found in
the Museum of the Province of North
Sumatra, which are collections from
colonialism, are types of traded
commodities in the colonial era in the
form of spices, miniature activities and
social classes of the Indonesian
archipelago during the colonial period.
There is also the technology used in
plantations owned by the Dutch in
northern Sumatra in the form of latex
grinding machines to currencies that are
used as a medium of exchange for
plantation communities. Another
collection is the diorama of the social
life of the people in the past in the city
of Medan.
Room 6 in the North Sumatra
Provincial Museum is filled with
various historical collections of the
struggle against colonialism. If we trace
the breakdown of Indonesian history
listed in the National History book, it
was stated that efforts to fight the
Indonesian archipelago against
colonialism had taken place long before Basic Class
Indonesian independence which Types of historical Compete
occurred in 1945. Even after Indonesia's Period
relics nnce
independence, the struggle did not (KD)
necessarily stop due to undermining 1. Dioramas of Pre- 3.1, X
allies who wanted to reclaim pre-literate- Literacy 3.2
sovereignty Indonesia. one form of the community
struggle to defend Indonesian 2. lifereplica of-
independence is the Battle of Medan ancient human- 3.3
Area. Physical evidence of the struggle fossils
in the form of traditional weapons and 3. Holding Ax 3.4
modern weapons, various types of
traditional medicines used by soldiers 4. Square axi 3.4
during the struggle, communication 5. Clamshell 3.4
equipment used in coordination to 6. Deer antlers 3.4
develop strategies against invaders to
7. Beads 3.4
hero paintings and posters depicting
sites on during the war. The various 8. Hook 3.4
collections can be used as a source of 9. Ornament 3.5
learning about Indonesian History in 10. Arca Buddha 3.5
Class XI High School on basic
competencies (KD) 3.2. 11. Lokanata Arca-
replica Hindu-
The other collections in the State Buddha 3.5, 3.6
Museum of North Sumatra, which can 12. Bodhissatwa
be used as a source of learning about 3.6
Arca
Indonesian history, are collections of
13. Traditional 3.1
regional warriors, national heroes from XI
medicine Coloniali 3.2
North Sumatra to the history of the head
of government in North Sumatra, which 14. Figure of sm 3.6 XI
is in room 7. There are figures of heroes National Heroes
of struggle and the biography. These
collections can be used as a learning
resource for basic competencies 3.6 CONCLUSION
about the role of national and regional The importance of Indonesian History
leaders in fighting for independence. lessons is the cultivation of knowledge
With the introduction of regional and values from the development
struggle figures and their work for the process of Indonesian society from the
nation and the region, students can have past to the present. The purpose of
empathy and respect for the services of teaching history is to shape the
the heroes and increasingly love the nationalism of students so that they are
motherland. proud and concerned about the survival
Table 1 - The relevance of historical of their nation. The actualization of the
heritage objects contained in the vision is realized through the learning of
Museum in the Basic Competencies of Indonesian History which
Indonesian History in High School.
accommodates an increase in students'
critical attitude and historical
awareness. Learning. Various
collections in the form of physical
evidence of the nation's journey
contained in the Museum of the
Province of North Sumatra have the
potential to be used as a source of
learning in Indonesian History subjects.
This is evidenced by the relevance of
historical objects in the Museum of the
Province of North Sumatra with the
Indonesian History curriculum at the
Senior High School level. Arrangement
of collections in the exhibition space
arranged coherently in accordance with
the movements of the Indonesian
nation's journey allows the process of
understanding to students can run well.
By learning through museums,
historical learning that is abstract
because it reviews past lives that have
been passed can be contextualized to
students so as to be able to increase
their historical insight and empathy.
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