Emotions are seen as a driving force in students’ learning, but students’ involvement can also be problematic. A subject matter that catches students’ attention can either lead to positive learning activities or lead to rejection if the subject matter is upsetting in a negative way. Here, this teaching dimension will be addressed in connection with Environmental Education.

Three examples ­– a whole-class teaching event, an individual student’s learning process and an example of process drama – will be briefly presented in order to discuss how different instructional designs interact with students’ emotions. A conclusion is that emotionally-loaded subjects require an elaborated teaching strategy in order to develop deeper knowledge. When the teaching includes an aesthetic approach, like process drama, emotions are not seen as a problem but as an integrated, natural part of the whole.