Youth Visitor’s Meaning-Making During Visit to the National History of Indonesia in The Museum Sejarah Nasional: Study of Constructivist Learning

Abstract

Museum Sejarah Nasional (MSN/National History Museum) in the National Monument (Tugu Monas) is the first modern museum in Indonesia and was initially proposed by the first President of Indonesia, Soekarno. The museum displays its main collections as diorama, a model commonly used in the late nineteenth century because it stimulates visitors’ curiosity (cabinet of curiosity/wunderkammer) through “evocative,” “beautiful,” and “powerful” ways (Schwarzer & Sutton, 2009, pp. 1–9).

Introduction

Museum Sejarah Nasional (MSN/National History Museum) in the National Monument (Tugu Monas) is the first modern museum in Indonesia and was initially proposed by the first President of Indonesia, Soekarno. The museum displays its main collections as diorama, a model commonly used in the late nineteenth century because it stimulates visitors’ curiosity (cabinet of curiosity/wunderkammer) through “evocative,” “beautiful,” and “powerful” ways (Schwarzer & Sutton, 2009, pp. 1–9).

President Soekarno was known for his love of history that can easily be identified from his famous jargon Jas Merah (Jangan Sekali-kali Meninggalkan Sejarah, never ever forsake history). For him, Tugu Monas must instill a sense of patriotism among Indonesian youth as stated in his speech in 1963:

to raise the spirit of patriotism among Indonesian youth in the future, we are building a monument in the form of Tugu. This monument must show our patriotic spirit, particularly as a nation who has survived the age of colonialism. (Naskah Pelaksana Pembina Tugu Nasional, as quoted by Hariyani, 2013, p. 57)

For Soekarno, the Indonesian youth must embrace the spirit of patriotism as they are the ones who will determine the future of the country. The president used two important terms to describe the spirit of the youth. First is the term semangat (roughly translated as “spirit” or “passion”), which denotes a more radical potential and will power than the sanitized fervor of “teen spirit” (Lee, 2016, p. 11). Second is the term generasi pemuda (youth generation), which refers more to their enthusiasm rather than their age (Frederick, as cited by Lee, 2016, p. 11). Similar to other historical museums, MSN serves as a medium for public education through exhibits offering a vision of progress, victory, and national excellence (Trofanenko, 2010, p. 270).

In his original vision, Soekarno expected the MSN diorama to depict three historical phases, namely, how the colonial era interrupted a glorious past, which will be regained after national awakening. He clarified this perspective in one of his speeches in 1964.

under the monument, there will be a historical museum in which you will see stages, phases of Indonesia’s history: the greatness of the Maritime age; the dark age of Dutch imperialism; and the resurrection to greatness. You will find all of these in the museum. (Soekarno, President of the Republic of Indonesia, 16 August 1964)

Soekarno conceived the idea of MSN after taking inspiration from his visit to Mexico in the 1960s. As a fan of history, Bung Karno was impressed by Mexico’s National Museum, particularly the writing inscribed on a wall in the exit path of the museum (“We left behind the museum, but not the history”). This realization motivated Soekarno to build a museum underneath the National Monument (Rahardjo & Kanumoyoso, 2013, p. 115).

At the time of plan implementation, President Soekarno was replaced by President Soeharto. MSN then became the arena of ideological contestation between the two presidents, from Soekarno’s emphasis on socialism to Sohearto’s foregrounding of Pancasila (McGregor, 2003, p. 93). The committee selected by Soekarno in 1964 designed 40 sets of dioramas, and the New Order’s new committee prepared 48 dioramas (Museum Content Designer Team). Together with the three dioramas made in 1998, the final collection comprised 51 dioramas.

The dioramas established during Soeharto’s period were discontinued at the glory of the New Order (the 51st diorama). The New Order regime was toppled by the Reformation movement in 1998, but no other dioramas have been installed in the new era. Today’s youths are not the same as those who were raised in either Soekarno’s or Soeharto’s era. The majority of present MSN visitors are the youth raised during Reformation era. Hence, studying their process of meaning-making on Indonesia’s national history as depicted by MSN’s dioramas will be meaningful.

In this research, constructivism would be the most appropriate approach because visitors generate meaning that is based on their own self-constructed understanding and might not be in line with the framework provided by the museum. Therefore, MSN’s diorama can be interpreted in various ways, and such proposition is related to the interpretation concepts of pluralistic artifacts (Varheyen, 2010, p. 37) and mediated learning (Jakobson and Davidson 2012 as cited by McGregor & Gadd, 2019, p. 140).

The hypothesis is that young visitors conduct alternative meaning-making upon seeing the dioramas in the MSN. Museums are specifically designed to attract, involve, and stimulate visitors with limited knowledge (Falk & Adelman, 2003, p. 172). These informal educational institutions differ from schools (formal education) that are planned around a curriculum with a pedagogical approach. Visitors who come to history museums do not intend to become historians. History museums can be visited by a variety of people from different backgrounds and with varying levels of history knowledge. Some think of themselves as experts or merely novices. The constructivist approach assumes that visitors come to museums with different knowledge levels (Adams et al., 2003, p. 22).

Many history museums have previously adopted a didactic model of education. Visitors must be provided with historical information to create a new bank of knowledge upon leaving the museum. This didactic educational model implies that learning is a one-way model of communication with the museum as the giver and the visitor as the receiver. Here, the visitor is assumed to be a passive recipient of knowledge without any power to provide different meanings in the museum context.

This didactic learning model has the disadvantage of making the learner passive. In general, its critics come from constructivist circles. The theory of constructivist learning posits that learners who visit the museum do not arrive with an empty mind; they bring previous knowledge with them. Learning is defined as an ongoing and highly personal process. Learners have different cognitive levels and build learning experiences to create unique and highly individualized learning schemes (Adams et al., 2003, p. 17).

MSN, which has existed for more than 50 years since the Old Order (Orde Lama) in the 1960s, has received many criticisms from the public as well as the government. When Basuki Tjahaya Purnama, known as Ahok, was the Governor of Jakarta in 2015, he questioned the absence of diorama about a significant milestone of Indonesian democracy, that is, the first direct general election in the Reformasi era during President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s term (Wahyudi, 2015).

A number of research related to the National Monument in Monas, Jakarta, Indonesia, has been conducted. Katherine McGregor (2003) examined the contesting ideologies between the dioramas designed by Soekarno’s team and implemented by Soeharto’s team. Murwaningrum (2007) analyzed the dioramas of MSN from a historian’s perspective and evaluated how they represent historical facts. Hariyani (2013) reviewed the National Monument in an integrated manner from a museum management approach. From the visitor’s perspective, Darmintono (2004) determined the general visitor satisfaction of the National Monument. None of the above studies examined the meaning-making of youth visitors for the MSN dioramas. Therefore, this chapter tries to fill the gap of research in Monas, especially in the MSN, by using the concept of constructivist learning.

This work aims to analyze the meaning-making of youth visitors looking at the MSN dioramas in terms of constructivist learning and reconstruct this process on the dimensions of extent, breadth, depth, and mastery.

One of the methodologies used to measure the results of constructivist learning in museums is Personal Meaning Mapping (PMM) developed by John H. Falk from the Institute of Learning Innovation, United States. This tool does not emphasize the characteristics but rather the rate of change in learning. The main understanding of PMM is that the quality of learning experience can change a person; the better the experience, the greater the change. Instead of measuring what visitors learn, understanding the amount, depth, and extent of their learning is highly advantageous (Falk et al., 2006, p. 333). PMM employs the following four dimensions to evaluate the learning process in museums: extent that measures the variance of the vocabulary, breadth that measures the breadth of a concept, depth that measures the depth of knowledge, and mastery that measures the mastery of a visitor’s understanding of a theme/material to be tested.

This study combines quantitative and qualitative (mixed-method design) approaches using PMM for a holistic analysis (Creswell & Clark, 2007). Data collection techniques in PMM consist of two stages: before (pre-visit) and after visiting dioramas (post-visit). For pre-visit, we ask visitors to write any words, ideas, pictures, phrases, or thoughts related to “National History of Indonesia” on a sheet of paper with a prompt written in the middle of the questionnaire sheet. Concepts must be written with a green ballpoint pen. Afterward, we interview the visitors by asking their opinion about what they just wrote. These interviews are recorded using a voice recorder and accompanied by notes containing key words, written by us with a black pen under the visitors’ answers in green ink.

We then invite the visitors to enter the MSN to see the dioramas. Before the visitors enter the museum, we ask them if they would be willing to complete the notes and be interviewed again upon leaving the museum. After the visit to the MSN’s dioramas, we immediately distribute the PMM sheet (Fig. 1) and ask the visitors to review what they had previously written and change, delete, or add another word/phrase/thought to the same PMM sheet using a different colored ballpoint pen. Afterward, we conduct another open interview by asking the visitors to explain the newly written words/phrases/thoughts. This explanation is recorded using a different colored ballpoint pen on the same PMM sheet. We also ask for the demographic data of visitors, such as age, education, regional origin, visit frequency, and historical interest.

Fig. 1

Example of PMM Sheet. (Note: The green writings represent the visitors’ answers before looking at the dioramas of MSN, and the red writings are the visitors’ answers after looking at the dioramas. Writings in black ink are the researchers’ explanations on the green writings, and those in blue are the researchers’ explanation on the red writings)

Given that the target participants are youth visitors, we select students for the sample group. Study population is based on the student visitors who visited the MSN in February, March, and April of 2017. The number of student visitors was 218 in February, 267 in March, and 65 in April. The total number of student visitors from February to mid-April is 550 people. Hence, the average number of student visitors is 183 people. Sample size is calculated using the method of Isaac and Michael (Sugiyono., 2013, p. 126) with a 10% error rate as follows.

$$ \mathrm{S}=\frac{{\mathchar'26\mkern-9mu \lambda}^2.\mathrm{N}.\mathrm{P}.\mathrm{Q}}{{\mathrm{d}}^2\left(\mathrm{N}-1\right)+{{\mathchar'26\mkern-9mu \lambda}}^2.\mathrm{P}.\mathrm{Q}} $$

$$ {{\mathchar'26\mkern-9mu \lambda}}^2\ \mathrm{dk}=1, error\ level\ might\ be\kern0.5em 1\%,5\%,10\% $$

$$ \mathrm{P}=\mathrm{Q}=0,5\kern0.5em \mathrm{d}=0,05\kern0.5em \mathrm{S}= Sample $$

$$ \mathrm{S}=\frac{3,841\ x\ 183\ x\ 0,5\ x\ 0,5}{0,{1}^2\left(183-1\right)+3,841\ \mathrm{x}\ 0,5\ \mathrm{x}\ 0,5} $$

$$ \mathrm{S}=\frac{175,72575}{1,82+0,96025} $$

$$ \mathrm{S}=\frac{175,72575}{2,78025} $$

$$ =63,20 $$

$$ =63\ \left( rounding\ result\right) $$

If the average population is 183 people, then the total sample size is 63 people. Here, we apply incidental sampling, a determination technique based on chance; that is, anyone who accidentally meets us can be used as a sample (Sugiyono., 2013, p. 124). Suitability as a data source is determined at the time of meeting. We ask the person if he/she is a student and accordingly if he/she is willing to be part of the study. Those who agree are categorized as the research data.

As described by Adams et al. (2003), the final data from PMM is a series of change scores based on the rubrics developed for each review. Hence, a clear, concise scoring rubric is developed for each dimension. This score can be used as a dependent measure that can be compared with the extent of free variable variability (e.g., learning intervention, age, gender, amount of experience).

This version of PMM analysis is used to identify and categorize the theme patterns of visitor response in the form of concepts related to NHI understanding. The four PMM scales to be analyzed are Extent, Breadth, Depth, and Mastery (Foutz & Luke, 2005) as described below.

• 1. Extent/Fluency

  • Extent reveals changes in the number of relevant vocabularies used and measures the extent to which one’s knowledge and feelings change. Change score is determined by counting the number of relevant words/phrases written by visitors before and after the visit.

  • This scale measures changes from two aspects of the words/ideas that visitors write on the answer sheet: response type (concept and single word/phrase) and number of words/ideas. Because the prompt is NHI, this vocabulary scale only covers what the visitor actually wrote, both before and after seeing the dioramas, and not the response from the interview with us. Only relevant words are calculated.

  • In scoring, the words written by visitors are distinguished by the “before” category to count the words written before the visit. The category “new” is to count words after the visit, and the category “after” counts the total answers (“after” is the cumulative score).

• 2. Breadth/Concept Categories

  • This scale represents a change (between before and after the visit) in the conceptual categories used by the visitors to describe their thinking about the NHI. With this scale, we will subsequently arrange several categories based on the extent of the results that form certain conceptual patterns. Each category is labeled and defined.

  • Every idea written by a visitor is scored based on a number of existing categories. In the dimension of breadth, the following four concept categories are mapped: (1) Maritime Age, (2) Dark Ages of Dutch Imperialism, (3) Time of Resurrection to the Greatness, and (4) Miscellaneous (other than the numbers 1–3 above).

• 3. Depth

  • This scale gives a score on the amount of detail of visitor’s understanding of the conceptual category and scale measures the depth of the visitor understanding. We count the scores from before/after PMMs that match the actual diorama pictures.

  • The same word/phrase (before and after the visit) is given the same score. Each of the conceptual categories given by visitors or the answers to our questions is scored 0–3. The score categories are as follows:

  • 0: if the response is not related to the purpose/concept of NHI;

  • 1: minimal response, which shows no understanding related to the given concept;

  • 2: wide response, which reflects general understanding or knowledge limited to the given concept; and

  • 3: shows the best understanding of the given concept.

• 4. Holistic Mastery

  • This dimension explores the mastery of descriptions in accordance with the visitors’ understanding of NHI in the pre- and post-visit stages and measures whether the visitors’ understanding is similar to that of a novice or an expert.

  • All PMM visitors are scored using the letters D, C, B, and A. Answer sheets are annotated by circling these letters with a pencil/ballpoint.

  • D: New understanding/novice: signifies an inaccurate understanding; no references to related concepts.

  • C: Some accurate understandings: recognizing one or two concepts; answers are related to common knowledge.

  • B: Accurate understanding: can name one or two concepts as appropriate.

  • A: Expert understanding: accurate understanding of three or more appropriate concepts; deeply referring to two or more concept.

Findings

• 1. Sample Characteristics

Participants’ characteristics are divided into several categories, such as sex, education level, residence/regional origin, age, frequency of visits to MSN, and interest in history. The number of female visitors is higher (35, 55.56%) than that of males (28, 44.44%). For education level, 15 people (23.82%) have a diploma 3, 40 (63.45%) are undergraduates (S-1), and 8 (12.70%) are graduates (S-2). Origin is dominated by Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi (Jabodetabek) (26 people, 41.27%); Central Java and Yogyakarta (11 people, 17.46%); West Java and Banten (11 people, 17.46%); Sumatra (seven people, 11.11%); East Java (five people, 7.94%); NTB (two people, 3.18%); and Sulawesi (1 person, 1.59%).

For the number of visits to the MSN, 13 people (20.64%) have never visited MSN, 43 people (68.25%) have visited MSN 1–3 times, and 7 people (11.11%) have visited four times or more. When asked whether they like history, most participants claimed to like history, that is, 46 people (73.02%). Only 17 (26.98%) people claimed to dislike history (Table 1).

• 2. Extent Dimension

Table 1 Characteristics of visitors who participated in the study (n = 63)

In extent dimension, most visitors mentioned five words about the NHI before seeing the dioramas. After seeing the dioramas, most visitors added three new concepts. On average, nine words/phrases (rounded) are mentioned after seeing the dioramas. As illustrated in Fig. 2, the visitors write 339 words/phrases before seeing the dioramas and 215 additional (new) concepts. Hence, the total of words/phrases in the post-visit of the dioramas is 554 words/phrases.

Fig. 2

Change of Vocabulary Quantity in Extent Dimension

In terms of sex, the number of NHI-related words written by female visitors is more than that of males in pre-visit and post-visit. At the pre-visit, the number of words written by men is 46.90% and that of females is 53.10%. For the acquisition of new knowledge, the rate is 46.98% for men and 53.02% for women; for words, the rate is 46.93% for men and 53.03% for women at the post-visit.

On the basis of visit frequency, the number of words written by visitors who have never previously been to the MSN decreases from 21.24% before seeing the dioramas to 20.22% after viewing the dioramas. For the visitors who have been to the MSN one to three times before, the average acquisition of words increases from 68.73% before seeing the dioramas to 68.77% after seeing the dioramas. The increase also occurs in visitors who have been to the MSN, four times or more than before. The number of written words is 10.03% before seeing the dioramas and 11.01% after seeing the dioramas.

Visitors who claim to like history increase their number of words from 78.17% before seeing the dioramas to 78.52% after seeing the dioramas. For the visitors who claimed to dislike history, the number of words they write down decreases from 21.83% before seeing the dioramas to 21.48% after seeing the dioramas (Table 2).

Table 2 Cross Tabulation of the Dimension of Extent

Table 2 shows that in the dimension of extent, the average number of words related to NHI shows an increasing trend from pre-visit to post-visit stage. This result confirms that learning in museums is influenced by the personal context. Meaning-making, in the form of visitor’s knowledge, is influenced by prior knowledge and experience and combined with new knowledge when visiting a museum. Therefore, the meaning-making of visitors in the museum constitutes a mixture of prior and new knowledge mediated by their experience with physical reality in the form of MSN dioramas.

Visitor #40 (before entering MSN): “As far as I know, there was the Kingdom of Sriwijaya, mmm … which propagated Hindu teachings.”

Visitor #40 (after exiting from MSN): “I’m sorry. It turns out that Sriwijaya is a Buddhist Kingdom.”

Visitor #59 (before entering MSN): “I know a hero called Imam Bonjol, from Java.”

Visitor #59 (after entering MSN): “Now I know he’s from West Sumatra.”

Meaning-making can also occur in the form of correction of confirmation as shown by the statements of visitor #40 and #59 above. The MSN dioramas can confirm visitors’ prior discourses.

• 3. Dimension of Breadth

The theme of “The Greatness of the Maritime Era” is more often mentioned by males than by females with an increased usage by men, that is, from 51.11% in pre-visit to 55.55% in post-visit. Meanwhile, this theme is less mentioned by women from 48.89% before seeing the dioramas to 44.45% after seeing the dioramas.

Conversely, the theme of “Darkness of Dutch Imperialism” is more often named by women than by men. An increase in usage by women is observed, that is, 53.70% in the stage before seeing the dioramas to 58.49% after seeing the dioramas. For men, its usage decreases from 46.30% in the stage before seeing the dioramas to 41.51% after seeing the dioramas.

The theme of “The Age of Resurrection to Greatness” is more often named by males than by females. An increase in usage by men is noted, that is, from 32.05% in the stage before seeing the dioramas to 53.06% after viewing the dioramas. For women, its usage decreases from 67.95% in the stage before seeing the dioramas to 46.94% after seeing the dioramas.

Visitors who like history mentioned more NHI themes than visitors who dislike history. The percentages of NHI themes described in three history phases are as follows: Maritime Age and Dark Age of Dutch Imperialism, both 77.78%; and Resurrection to Greatness, 80.77%.

On the basis of this dimension, the themes of Greatness of the Maritime Era and Resurrection to Greatness are preferred by men rather than women. Therefore, the themes of maritime and grandeur that described greatness and strength represent the characteristics of masculinity. The themes of the Darkness of Dutch Imperialism are appealing to women, implying their long, deep-seated memories of imperialism or oppression (Table 3).

Table 3 Cross Tabulation of Dimension of Breadth

In addition to the three NHI themes, a “Miscellaneous” theme describes concepts of these three phases. Here the mention of “Miscellaneous” theme increases from 59.57% to 61.54%. The words/phrases that are frequently mentioned in the Miscellaneous theme are Gus Dur, Reformation Order, and Monetary Crisis. Their mention indicates the expectation of young visitors (most of them are from the Millennial generation) to include the Reformation Order in the MSN dioramas. The word “Gus Dur,” for example, is mentioned by visitor #10 (female, 19 years old), and visitor #33 (female, 33 years old). “Reformation Order” and “Monetary Crisis” are mentioned by visitor #15 (male, 19 years old), visitor #20 (male, 25 years old), visitor #27 (male, 19 years old), visitor #42 (female, 20 years old), and visitor #53 (male, 21 years old). The meaning-making of visitors dealing with Reformation Era, for example, comes from visitor #33. Before entering MSN, he acknowledged that it was his first-time visiting MSN. When asked about National History of Indonesia, he said:

From what I know, there is a historical depiction of Gus Dur, who made a great contribution to the nation by recognizing the Chinese New Year as one of the National Holidays.

After exiting MSN, visitor #33 wondered: “Why can’t we find Gus Dur in this MSN? If I’m not mistaken, during the Reformation era, there were Gus Dur and Megawati.” Visitor #33’s meaning-making can be categorized as a criticism of MSN’s diorama. Coincidentally, visitor #33 is a student of Chinese descent who was fond of Gus Dur for recognizing the Chinese New Year as a national holiday. Such meaning-making confirms that a visitor’s prior discourse (for instance, knowledge of Gus Dur) will affect his or her judgment on dioramas in MSN. This result excludes the existence of particular groups.

Criticisms of the MSN dioramas also come from general visitors. Bayu, a senior high school teacher from Depok, West Java, criticized the contents of the dioramas that are still narrated under the influence of the New Order. Bayu said that:

Soeharto is depicted to receive Supersemar. This event is still debatable, you know. In the diorama, Soeharto is depicted to be lying sick on his bed while three Army Generals sat on chairs next to the bed. Well, this is the New Order’s justification of Supersemar. (Detiknews, 2015)

He criticized the role of Soeharto who was behind the Command Letter of March 11, 1966 (Supersemar) (Detiknews, 2015). The above critics of the content of the MSN dioramas show that the meaning-making, as experienced by the public, means that visitors do not just receive the messages of the museum and take them for granted.

• 4. Dimension of Depth

The average increase in both genders is in score 2 (broader answer) and 3 (the answer indicating the best understanding). For male visitors, the increase in score 2 is 21.43% before seeing the dioramas and 42.86% after seeing the dioramas, and that in score 3 is 7.14% before seeing the dioramas and 21.43% after seeing the dioramas. For female visitors, the increase in score 2 is 51.43% before seeing the dioramas and 77.14% after seeing the dioramas.

Visitors who like history experience an increase in the depth of knowledge in scores 2 and 3. For the visitors who like history, the increase in score 2 is 41.30% before seeing the dioramas and 65.21% after seeing the dioramas, and that in score 3 increases from 6.52% before seeing the dioramas to 15.21% after seeing the dioramas. For visitors who do not like history, none of them meet score 3 in the stage before seeing the dioramas. However, an additional depth of 5.88% knowledge has appeared after seeing the dioramas (Table 4).

• 5. Dimension of Mastery

Table 4 Cross Tabulation of Dimension of Depth

Among the 63 visitors, the average mastery of understanding before seeing the dioramas is B (the answer illustrates an accurate understanding of the NHI, referring to 2 or 3 concepts specified, but does not show the depth of the concept of the NHI in the dioramas of the MSN, or describe one concept in more depth). After viewing the MSN dioramas, the average depth of visitor knowledge is constant (B).

For the visitors who have not visited the MSN before, the scores (from A to D) are diverse. An increase occurs in D (from 0% to 3.57%) and score A (from 3.57% to 17.85%). A decrease occurs in the C score (50% to 3.14%), and the B score remains the same (46.42%) before and after viewing the dioramas. Visitors who have visited the MSN one to three times mostly show an increase in score D (from 0% to 6.45%), score B (from 53.48% to 65.12%), and score A (from 2.32% to 13.95%) and a decrease in score C (from 44.19% to 16.27%). Visitors who have visited the MSN four times or more show a constant status on score B (57.14%) and A (14.28%) before and after seeing the dioramas.

For the visitors who love history, the mastery of understanding NHI is improved as evident by the increase in score D (0% to 4.34%), score B (from 54.34% to 67.39%), and score A (from 4.34% to 15. 21%). For the visitors who do not like history, an increase is observed for score D (from 0% to 5.88%) and A (from 0% to 5.88%). The B score remains fixed (52.94%) before and after viewing the dioramas (Table 5).

Table 5 Cross Tabulation of Dimension of Mastery

Conclusion

Falk, Dierking, and Adams stated that PMM, which is based on the constructivist approach, assumes that the learners who come to the museum do not come with empty minds resembling empty bottles that must be filled or blank paper (tabula rasa) that must be written on. Instead, they bring their previous knowledge. Its priority is the rate, not the characteristics, of learning changes. The main understanding of PMM is that the quality of learning experience can change a person; the better the experience, the greater the change. Instead of measuring what visitors learn, understanding the amount, depth, and extent of their learning is highly advantageous (2006, p. 333). PMM underlines the constructivist theory of education, a philosophical approach that is opposed to positivism. The latter seeks to understand the objective phenomenon that exists outside the human construct, and the former aims to understand a social space as experienced by human filters (Lindauer, 2005, p. 144). In the context of learning during a museum visit, the visitor’s meaning-making is personal.

This research shows that in extent dimension, the changes of words/phrases show an increasing trend before and after the visit to the MSN dioramas. In breadth dimension, the percentage of visitors who mention three phases of history also increase at post-visit. In depth dimension, an increase is also observed from bare minimum to a wide knowledge. In mastery dimension, the score is dominated by category B (accurate comprehension, can accurately mention one to two concepts). Therefore, the meaning-making of visitors to the MSN in the Tugu Monumen Nasional shows an increase in phrases/vocabulary, depth of knowledge, and mastery of understanding about NHI.

Constructivist learning in the form of meaning-making by visitors in Tugu Monas is personal. All visitors have a prior diverse knowledge, and this diversity greatly affects what and how visitors learn from their experience. Visitors of the MSN can be categorized as experts or novices. Thus, the challenge for educators is to accommodate this variability in a meaningful way.

From the methodological perspective, learning outcomes using PMM cannot be generalized similar to those in a positivist approach because the philosophical foundation of PMM questions positivism. PMM looks for particularities, not generalizations. Although many PMMs reject the ideas of a positivist approach, most of them still use quantitative positivist methods in data collection and data analysis. For example, Adams, Falk, and Dierking (2003, p. 24) did not explicitly reject the use of established samples conducted in a positivist approach. In the current work, the sample size is also calculated using Isaac Newton’s highly positivist formulas.

Given the lack of guidelines for its usage (Adams et al., 2003, p. 30), PMM remains an option but not necessarily the best method. Resource availability is an important factor when deciding to use PMM. Our experience in implementing PMM research shows that it is time consuming and resource demanding. When the situation is normal, interviews with visitors run as expected. However, for visiting families, PMM is not suitable because the level of visitor reflection to answer the PMM might not reach the required level. Thus, PMM makes strong demands on our ability and experience to make the interview atmosphere relaxed and flexible.

As a relatively new methodology, PMM facilitates the interpretation of museum visitor responses and how we understand and think about the way visitors harness their learning in museums. PMM has also contributed to a constructivist learning approach in informal education environments (museums, galleries, zoos, and science centers) to understand the rich and complex learning experiences resulting from a museum visit. Thus, the study of learning in Indonesian museums using PMM must be further developed.

In Indonesian schools, students learn history taught with a positivist approach of “right” and “wrong” answers, on a linear scale of “unknowledgeable” to “knowledgeable” content. By contrast, history museum is an informal institution that is principally intended to attract, engage, and stimulate visitors with limited knowledge and thus can be used to balance the formal positivist learning.

For the museums, the practical implication of this work is that the diversity in visitor knowledge levels can be used as an evaluation index to improve the quality of the exhibition. Based on the findings, the mastery of the visitor understanding of the concept of the NHI varies from a novice understanding with D score to an expert understanding with A score. Therefore, the museum needs to work diligently to target novice visitors and stimulate their interest in the subject and increase their knowledge.

The findings also reflect the youth’s critical response to the museum exhibit. These young visitors live in an era different from the drafter and implementer of the MSN, Presidents Soekarno and Soeharto. The Indonesian youth visitors were born and raised during the post-Reformation and expected diorama relevant to their era. Regarding the theme “Miscellaneous,” the young visitors mentioned the absence of the Reformation-era theme in the MSN.

The following are the recommendations of this thesis: (a) On the basis of the findings on breadth dimension, the MSN should conduct a re-contextualization of its exhibition by incorporating Reformation era into the dioramas. (b) On the basis of the findings on mastery dimension, the MSN should improve the quality of the dioramas to ensure that novice visitors can enhance their critical understanding of history. From this aspect, interactive and participatory activities in discussing the dioramas will be of great benefit. By accomplishing these goals, the MSN, as imagined by President Sukarno, can invigorate nationalistic passion and balance it with the critical perspective that behooves the youth spirit in the post-Reformation era.