Rekonstruksi Pembelajaran Pendidikan Agama Islam dari Rote Learning ke Meaningful Learning: Perspektif Epistemologi Ibnu Khaldun

Abstract

Contemporary Islamic Religious Education (PAI) in Indonesia faces a significant challenge due to the dominance of the rote learning approach. This method renders religious material dogmatic, induces cognitive overloading, and isolates learning from the students' social reality. The gap between textual memorization skills and character internalization creates an urgent need to reconstruct PAI methodology toward meaningful learning. This study aims to identify the factors causing the persistence of rote learning, critically analyze Ibn Khaldun's epistemology regarding the flaws of blind memorization, and formulate a blueprint for a contemporary PAI transition model based on the concept of malakah. This study employed a qualitative approach using library research. The descriptive-analytical method was modified by integrating critical epistemology and theoretical hermeneutics to dissect the primary text of the Muqaddimah by Ibn Khaldun.

The first finding indicates that the persistence of rote learning is driven by a systemic epistemological error in the form of rigid mass indoctrination (al-talqin al-mukarrar al-jami'), triggered by the inadequacy of student readiness, pedagogical harshness (al-shiddah), and a textual obsession (al-mukhtasharat) that culminates in the corruption of meaning (fasad al-ma'ani). The second finding demonstrates that the concept of malakah (scientific habituation) in Ibn Khaldun's view serves as a robust theoretical equivalent to meaningful learning (David Ausubel's Subsumption Theory). The formation of malakah is developed evolutionarily through three gradual stage variables (al-tadarruj): global principle introduction, analytical deepening, and autonomous internalization, which align with the teaching methods of Prophet Muhammad SAW. This comparison corrects modern PAI's reliance on secular Western theories and enriches the discourse on PAI reconstruction through the functionalization of classical Islamic heritage. This study offers a conceptual reconstruction, asserting that malakah in Ibn Khaldun’s epistemology is the philosophical equivalent of meaningful learning, positioning PAI as a gradual process of developing thinking skills, internalizing values, and habituation through al-tadarruj, al-tikrar, and contextual learning.