Chandana Watagodakumbura

SUMMARY OF of Programming the Brain Chandana Watagodakumbura

This book delves into the broader topic of educational transformation required at all levels of education at a time when the world is facing unprecedented challenges amidst the COVID-19 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 have neglected the most important social and emotional domains of learning and development by narrowly focusing only on the cognitive domain. Put differently, we have 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 pathway of lifelong learning and development for an individual, we highlight the essential enablers of developing self-awareness, mindfulness, and emotional intelligence. Following the neuroscientific notions of neuroplasticity and epigenetics that are becoming increasingly widespread, we shed the enforced linear models of learning in favour of putting learners in the driving seat to self-author their journeys in a pervasive manner. Such learning and development processes suggested in this book promise the development of individuals regarding enhanced openness, critical thinking, creativity, empathy, compassion, and resilience to serve this planet better, focusing on the greater good.