Personal Relevance in Secondary School Students’ Nature Experiences

This study examines secondary school students’ out-of-school, free choice nature experiences from the perspective of perceived personal relevance. We asked secondary school students (n = 70; aged 10–18 years) to portray a particularly memorable moment in nature. Furthermore, we asked the students to rate the perceived personal relevance of that moment, as well as the frequency of such moments. Perception of personal relevance was associated with age, gender, inner aspects (explicit positive evaluations) and outer aspects (type of setting) of the nature experience. Furthermore, perception of personal relevance was positively correlated with the frequency of the nature experience. This finding supports the hypothesis that secondary school students who perceive their own nature experiences as personally relevant are likely to re-engage in them. Most secondary school students attached considerable importance to personal experiences with nature and advocated opportunities for nature experiences in biology instruction. Future research should examine the role of personal relevance as a motivator to re-engage with one’s own nature experiences to counteract the extinction of experience. For promoting personally relevant nature experiences, educators need to acknowledge the diversity of nature experiences because the construction of perceived personal relevance is individual and subjective.