A Quasi-Experimental Study Into the Role of Musical Creativity Activities in a Croatian Primary School

The aim of this research was to examine the role of musical creativity activities in students’ music education in a Croatian general primary school. An experimental study was conducted to determine whether musical creativity activities influenced students’ perceptions of music lessons and to assess whether those activities contributed to a better understanding of the teaching material. The research involved the implementation of musical creativity activities in the lessons of two experimental groups over four class periods within 1 month during the 2024/2025 school year. The two control groups were taught the same content using traditional music-teaching methods. After each music lesson, students from both the experimental and the control groups completed a short questionnaire. The students’ perceptions of music lessons were evaluated through three constructs: interest and participation, knowledge acquisition, and collaboration. At the end of the research, the students completed an exam to assess their understanding and knowledge retention. The research included fifth- (age 11) and seventh-grade students (age 13) of a general primary school (N = 55). The results indicated that students rated their collaboration and participation in lessons higher when musical creativity activities were implemented. In addition, it was found that the girls in the experimental groups rated all three constructs more positively than the girls in the control groups, while the boys in the experimental groups rated their level of collaboration higher than the boys in the control groups. Although the experimental groups’ participants achieved higher overall scores on the exam, the difference was not statistically significant. These findings suggest the need for more frequent implementation of creativity activities in music lessons.