What shapes students’ interest during field trips to nature? An investigation of individual interest and basic need satisfaction as predictors of the psychological state of interest

The psychological state of interest depends, among other factors, on the individual's prior interest as well as on the situationally perceived need satisfaction for relatedness, competence, and autonomy. Regarding out-of-school learning in biology education, the extent to which this is equally true remains unclear. Therefore, we aimed to investigate prior individual interest and relatedness, competence, and autonomy as possible predictors of students' (N = 265) psychological state of interest during field trips to a forest and a pond at an environmental education center. Based on our data, the models explained 55% (forest group) and 54% (pond group) of the variance of the experienced psychological state of interest. Notably, individual interest and perceived autonomy predicted the psychological state of interest to the same extent in both groups. Perceived relatedness had no impact in either group, while perceived competence was found to be a predictor only in the forest group. This finding highlights the importance of perceived autonomy for promoting interest during out-of-school learning.