LAUSR

The purpose of this study was to (a) establish the relationships among achievement goal motivation, cognitive learning strategies, and musical creativity; (b) determine the best predictors of musical creativity among the study variables. Participants (N = 201) were secondary school music students in Kenya. Two self-report measures, the Achievement Goal Questionnaire-Revised (AGQ-R) and Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) were used in data collection for the independent variables. Musical creativity was measured by a creative composition task and evaluated according to four dimensions of musical craftsmanship, syntax, originality and aesthetic sensitivity. The results showed that musical creativity was positively correlated with mastery-approach goal and deep processing learning strategy but negatively correlated with surface processing strategy, performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals. The best predictor of musical creativity was deep processing strategy, β = .45, p < .01, which accounted for approximately 26% of the variance in participants’ musical creativity, followed by mastery-approach goal, β = .27, p < .01, R2 =.09. The implication for music education is that music teachers should create conducive environments and adopt teaching strategies that nurture mastery-approach goal orientation and deep processing learning strategies to enhance musical creativity