December 6, 2007

Alumna Miriam Factora Receives Doctorate

Congratulations to Miriam Factora, class of '84, who received her PhD in Music from the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Title of Dissertation: A Model of a Sequential Music Teaching Utilising Philippine Vocal Materials

The study responds positively to the Philippine’s Department of Education’s indigenization and localization program which aims to revive local and indigenous materials for classroom use as a way to heighten cultural awareness. It is a pioneering research written in the Philippines for the purpose of designing a pedagogical structure to present rhythmic and melodic concepts to young learners nationwide. It lays out the foundation towards a national approach to music education specifically at the elementary level.

To arrive at a plausible teaching sequence to be used in the context of Philippine culture, the following steps were undertaken: a.) Collection of materials in different areas of the Philippines; b.) Translation of these materials into English to get the message of the song; c.) Transcription of the materials into notation using a computer notational software; d.) Analysis of the materials; e.) Translation of selected materials into Filipino, the national language; f.) Systematization of these materials and g.) Sequencing of rhythmic and melodic elements to teach music literacy as derived from the systematized materials.

Two hundred of the Philippine’s folk or traditional children’s songs, spoken rhymes and/or musical games were selected for this study out of a total sample size of 1,500 that were mostly collected by the researcher in 15 regions of the Philippines from 44 ethno-linguistic groups.