Decision-making is nowadays a central element in life. Usually, we link decisions to rational considerations of an informed and knowledgeable person who is aware of his/her possibilities and choices. This emphasis on rationality and rational choices disguises the process of decision-making and with it the impact of emotions and feelings to that. Drawing on a research project to the role of emotions for decision making and problem solving, the proposed paper will outline an alternative way of meaningful learning and sustainable education.

The impact of rankings and outcome driven notion of education and learning in Europe and the emphasis on factual knowledge in political agenda form the idea of schooling, learning and education, influences teacher training programs and accordingly school routines. Furthermore, such an approach promotes a mainly rational understanding of learning and neglects the inseparable connection of emotional and cognitive processes. The reconciliation and integration of cognition and emotion with the emotional turn at the beginning of the 21^st century challenged the epistemological problem of the categorical dualism of reason and passion, and we are still reproducing this dualism in education and education research. Emotions and feelings represent necessary and essential preconditions of being human - they are foundational to any development of the individual. Thus, there is a need to reconsider the constitution of consciousness and ask for re-configurations of learning processes to overcome that dualism and integrate emotions and feelings in theoretical frameworks.

The objective in my research is to help students to develop (subjective-oriented) problem-solving competence by the sensitization of the emotionality through professional guidance: My research question is, what is the significance of emotional markers for educational choices on the transition to higher education and which preconditions, perceptions and images of life history and learning experience constitute these emotional markers and evaluations during this important transition process? (Accordingly, how is the modification and adaptation of the emotional evaluations through the sensitization and emotional contextualisation carried out?) The central starting point is that perception, memory, learning and especially decision-making are dependent on emotional markers, understood as the conscious and nonconscious emotional evaluation of mental images and representations. As stated, emotions and feelings are determining factors in the constitution of mind, in learning, and in generating individual and collective norms and values. In my research I focus on the process of decision-making at the end of secondary school in transition to higher education. The sensitization of emotionality can help students to evaluate and approach problems and/or situations differently: decisions are no longer seen as purely rationale but based on emotional markers. In clear distinction to factual knowledge and outcome driven education, the educational process in the research project implements a new form of knowledge and self-awareness. This new kind of knowledge – which is cognitive and emotional, reflexive and embodied – is seen to support sustainable life choices as individual desire is questioned in a deeper way, societal demands are coordinated, and economic requirements are challenged.

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