Chandana Watagodakumbura

Programming the Brain Chandana Watagodakumbura

This book delves into the broader topic of educational transformation required at all levels of education at a time world is facing unprecedented challenges amidst COVID19 tragedy. The premise of such an educational transformation agenda should be focused on individual learner transformation or whole person development. For decades, if not for centuries, we neglected the much important social and emotional domains of learning and development by narrowly focusing only on the cognitive domain. Put differently, we assumed that learning is an external entity that learners have to fill up rather than a means of forming embodied knowledge authentically by essentially looking inward at one's own "self" and its relationship to the external world. In this pursuit of lifelong learning and development for an individual, we highlight the important enablers of developing self-awareness, mindfulness and emotional intelligence. Following the emerging neuroscientific notions of neuroplasticity and epigenetics, we shed aside the linear models of learning that are prevalent in favours of putting learners in the driving seat to self-author their journeys as much as we can. Such learning and development processes suggested in this book promise the development of individuals of enhanced critical thinking, creativity, empathy and compassion to serve this planet better, for the greater good.