Final external expert verification: Rasini Bandara

Image taken from her personal LinkedIn account)

Rasini Bandara is a psychologist, a public speaker, and a lecturer based in Sri Lanka who has conducted workshops on redefining the classroom. Her area of expertise involves emotional intelligence, young adolescent psychology, and personality building.

As the last step for this milestone in this project, I wanted to verify my findings of this project. First introduced the project to her in brief, and asked for her feedback.

She started off the conversation saying she's similar in her teaching methods; not as chaotic as me, but she has the same element with her students. She doesn't try to be the typical classroom teacher, and to see things from the perspective of the students. She says when you understand your students, you are not just a lecturer, but someone they pay attention to out of want rather than need. She says 'More than being someone their own age, you understand their age' which further confirms the the 'WHY' part of this project of using the experienced hindsight but being able to apply it.

One of the biggest challenges I could face in this project is the unhealthy attitude different generations have towards the younger generations. There is a very high tech society with very the very low quality in emotions and real connections.

On Gaming and Chaotic Good:

Use of gaming is very relatable, as there is a strong connection to what's going on with the real world. It becomes very accessible, very easy. She says that the words 'Chaotic Good' captures the real world. When we try to mold individuals, we say 'See good, Do good, and Say good', but Rasini says that it's quite difficult to 'see' good as the world is not always a good place. It's not black and white, that the world is very grey, and in fact is very 'chaotic'. However, the 'good' part brings optimism. She says the world is very much toxic positivity, and the words 'Chaotic Good' implies that in the midst of chaos, there can be good. Thus creating optimism.

She also says that humans are animalistic in nature. We are governed by our id, the pleasure principles. As an example, she says that when we curse, we feel good. She talked about 'venting', and says how that supports your own well-being. It gives you self-esteem and self-satisfaction. By opening conversation where cut-off communication is not there, and late adolescents are allowed to 'vent', it adds to building emotional intelligence, and in turn, emotional resilience.

Humans are an emotional cocktail, and bottling things up doesn't end well for people. So she says that when you know how to vent, you create a balance of mental well-being. Emotional intelligence and resilience is knowing how to vent in the right manner; the time, the place, who to vent to, what about. When this happens, and you show an authentic side of you, you are accepted as a person.

Speaking of guiding late adolescents on 'how to' do something, she says that the 'ideal self' is a very hard concept to maintain as we are not perfect. One thing here she said that I want to highlight is that she says no one do anything thinking they want to make a mistake; 'We don't make mistakes. We take decisions'. Hindsight will tell you if it's a mistake or not.

As a lecturer, she also stops her lessons half way and have conversations about life, boyfriends, love etc. where it becomes an open forum. Even her clients, sometimes take the time to only vent and just 'be themselves'.

On body language, she says that body language says a lot about people, and humans are negativity bias, and how we always find fault in everything around us. How we look and behave makes memories for those who interact with us. As an example, Rasini says when people talk about their university days, not many students talk about the education part, but what they did during those days. They would talk about how they always sat in the back row or you secretly hated person. The 'best university time' is not the education. So if you could make the 'education' part just as memorable, it would make a huge difference. This is evident in the testimonials I received from my students as they remember the lessons too. Even for her, the students remember the discussions. Education can come from books and YouTube, but it's the experience that makes the lesson so memorable. Even if they forget the content, if they take what they learnt to real life, that's what's needed. It has to be an authentic experience in a relatable environment.

This was a much needed verification on my uncertainty on how my project would work in the real world outside of me. As an expert who applies some of the aspects of my project to her own practice, and seeing the positive results of it further confirms that this project is based on real data that can make real change, and it's already happening in small scale.

Credentials:

Rasini Bandara

Post Graduate Diploma in Special Education (Reading)

MSc Applied Psychology

BSc Special in Psychology, Dip in Psychology

Advanced Dip in Counselling Psychology

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasini-bandara-ba9696bb/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rasini.bandara/