FROM URBAN SPACE TO PEDAGOGICAL SPACE: EXPLORING THE EDUCATIONAL POTENTIAL OF THE YOGYAKARTA PHILOSOPHICAL AXIS AREA THROUGH EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

Abstract

Purpose – This study explores the educational potential of the Yogyakarta Philosophical Axis Area and examines how experiential learning transforms the area into a pedagogical space for history learning.

Methodology – This study employed a qualitative case study approach. Data were collected through field observations, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis, involving 10 students, 1 history teacher, 1 heritage educator, 1 cultural heritage expert, and 1 academic expert. Data were analyzed using Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña’s interactive model, in which thematic analysis was conducted during the data condensation stage and validated through source and methodological triangulation.

Findings – The findings reveal that the Yogyakarta Philosophical Axis Area offers meaningful, contextual learning experiences through direct engagement with heritage environments. Students demonstrated higher learning engagement, developed historical interpretation skills, strengthened cultural awareness, and connected historical knowledge with contemporary social and cultural realities. Learning activities encouraged observation, interpretation, reflection, and collaborative knowledge construction.

Contribution – This study contributes to educational research by explaining how an urban heritage landscape can be transformed into a pedagogical space through experiential learning. It proposes a conceptual understanding of this transformation based on a four-phase mechanism that progresses from encounter to situated observation, interpretation, and, finally, reflection and reconstruction. In doing so, it highlights how direct engagement fosters meaningful knowledge construction in heritage-based learning