Authors: Ranko Rajović, Iva Rajović Associates: Živa Ribićić, Miloš Vincík, Adriana Kováčová, Jana Sýkorová, Zuzana Kašparová, Kamila Balcarová Translation and Proofreading: Martina Harazinová Design and Technical Editor: Richard Weber Publisher: Cesta Fantázie / Fantao n.o. Methodological handbook of the project NTC FOR ALL Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2019 The project is co-financed by the European Union, ERASMUS+ program. The opinions presented in this document are the views of the NTC FOR ALL project partnership and do not have to express the opinions of the EU. Contract number: 2017-1-SK01-KA201-035382
n o i t c u d o r t n I Dear future NTC teachers and implementers, it is a great joy to present you carefully created a handbook that will be hopefully beneficial for your work, especially at the beginning of the NTC program implementation. Certainly, the handbook will also be useful further on your NTC journey. It will be a reference for basic guidelines and inspirations. This handbook has been created for participants of the Erasmus plus project named “NTC for all.” We hope that training, together with practical examples presented in the handbook will facilitate NTC program implementation, thereby contributing towards the long-term benefits of our children. The handbook was created to help all those who would like to get a grip on the NTC program but do not know exactly how and where to start. Ranko Rajović and Iva Rajović with the support of the NTC for all project team as professional associates (Živa Ribićić, Miloš Vincík, Adriana Kováčová, Jana Sýkorová, Zuzana Kašparová,
Kamila Balcarová) are the authors of the NTC handbook. The main goal of all NTC activities and techniques is to allow children to reach their maximum biological potential. „How to evoke huge potentials from our children in their preschool period?” is a question that the NTC system of learning deals with. The Program’s primary intention is to pinpoint the importance and necessity of neurophysiological discoveries and their application in the formal education of children. Utilizing the full potential of a human mind during the pivotal period of
mental challenges and certainly has the capacities and abilities to make further progress and develop their specific talents. We only need to help them to do it and, thereby, achieve their biological potentials. Failure to commit such stimulation will result in less talented and gifted children, individually and at the level of the entire Any child who has learned to speak his or her nation, and it is a well-known fact that mother language until the age of three has gifted children represent the most valuable resources of any country. already mastered one of the most difficult childhood, along with dedicated and educated parents and teachers, opens the door to more creative learning, with accelerated and easier recognition and development of capabilities. In this way, we prepare our children for the challenges that await them further in life.
S T N E T CON 1 ) NTC for all ............................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction of the project and its aim .......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Project partners ................................................................................................................................................................................ 2 1.3 Purpose of the handbook ................................................................................................................................................................ 3 1.4 Target audience for the handbook ................................................................................................................................................ 3 2) Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 4 2.1 History and story beyond the NTC program ................................................................................................................................ 4 2.2 Pillars of the NTC program and its phases ................................................................................................................................ 6 3) Educational neuroscience .................................................................................................................. 11 3.1 Early brain development and early stimulation ....................................................................................................................... 12 3.2 Impact of an environment ............................................................................................................................................................ 13 3.3 Learning through play ................................................................................................................................................................... 14 3.4 Importance of physical exercise ................................................................................................................................................ 15 3.5 The connection between motor and cognitive function ....................................................................................................... 16 4) The need for the NTC program ........................................................................................................... 19 4.1 Detecting a problem ........................................................................................................................................................................19 4.2 Towards solution ............................................................................................................................................................................ 22 5) The need of a tripartite approach – program realization and work methodology ............................ 23 5.1 Parents - optimal biological development ............................................................................................................................... 24 5.2 Kindergarten teachers – motor and cognitive development (development of thought processes) .......................... 31 5.3 School teachers – creative thinking and functional thinking ............................................................................................. 33 6) Implementation of the Program in kindergarten ............................................................................. 34 6.1 Implementation phase I - stimulation of neural connections and pathways development ........................................ 35 6.2 Implementation phase II - stimulation of the cognitive process development ............................................................. 40 6.3 Implementation phase III - development of functional thinking ....................................................................................... 44 7) Examples from practice .................................................................................................................... 49 7.1 Development of communication and creativity ...................................................................................................................... 52 7.2 Cognitive development ................................................................................................................................................................. 54 7.3 Sensorimotor development ......................................................................................................................................................... 56 7.4 Social-emotional development .................................................................................................................................................. 58 8) Confirmation of success - importance and benefits of program implementation in kindergarten age ................. 59
8.1 The Program implementation results ....................................................................................................................................... 60 8.2 Role of parents/teachers ............................................................................................................................................................ 64 9) Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 73 10) Before you start... ............................................................................................................................ 76 11) Reviews of the NTC program ............................................................................................................. 77 12) Literature ......................................................................................................................................... 82
l l a r o f C T 1) N 1 .1 I n t ro d u c t i o
n o f t h e P ro j e c
NTC for all „All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten” supported by the ERASMUS+ program.
t and its aim
countries (SK, CZ, SI, RS). Also, the project aims to contribute in strengthening the profile(s) of the teaching profession. This will be achieved through supporting teachers and leaders to deliver high quality The project addresses the educational sector of Early Childhood Education and Care. teaching and adopting new methods and It supports the efforts to increase access to tools focused on the NTC approach through affordable and high-quality early childhood active use of project outputs, among education and care. In addition, the project which this Handbook with standards for the NTC methodology lies in front of you, aims to achieve relevant and high-quality skills and competences in the target group as well as inspirations for educational NTC practical activities and planned NTC training of children aged 3 – 7. These priorities are targeted through developing project outputs programme. The aim is also to support the skills of pre-school teachers in implementing enhancing the implementation of the NTC the NTC approach in daily education and approach in the preschool environment additional competencies of preschools and professionalizing and the use of the teachers. NTC teaching approach in all the project
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tne 1 . 2 P ro j e c t p a r Fantao n.o. organizes the NTC workshops and lectures for teachers and parents all over Slovakia. They are focused on learning and using modern educational methods to support the development of creativity and psychomotor skills of the children. Fantao n.o. also organizes summer NTC camps in central Slovakia where the children can experience the innovative teaching methods while playing in a beautiful countryside. Fantao team members are experienced in the NTC program and have good practice with its implementation in Slovakia. http://fantao.sk/. INAK is an NGO established in spring 2014, with a focus on the development of human resources through providing educational support activities to various target groups. “INAK” supports the principles of lifelong learning, nature and environment protection, building relations to the natural and cultural heritage of Slovakia. “INAK” activities are focused on the development of human resources through realization of the educational programs and training, developing methodologies, supporting skills of people leading local community development, while using “Innovation and Creativity” principles. http://www.trochuinak.sk/, http:// takemeoutproject.eu/ Modra pikica is a private organization that owns a private Montessori kindergarten with Montessori educational program. They have daily Montessori program for children from 11 months to 6 years and other activities:
rs
Montessori training, workshops for parents and children, training for early language development. Modra pikica establishes the NTC centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia with Ranko Rajović. NTC EDU is an organization dedicated to the NTC system of learning program implementation that is designed to promote the development of preschool- and school age children. NTC system of learning is a specialized program for the education of children, parents, teachers, and nursery teachers, who can implement gained knowledge and skills in classrooms and everyday life. The mission of the organization is carried out through NTC workshops and summer camps, accompanied by the education of parents and teachers in a form of seminars, lectures, and workshops. Montessori škola Andílek – Primary School and Elementary School (MŠA) o.p.s. was established in 2008. It is a non – profit organization that provides services for families with children and childcare. The public benefit company runs the family centre, primary and elementary school Andílek that provide services such as educational seminars and courses and other activities and events for families, adult education and career development services, Montessori educational activities for the parents and children, childcare (Montessori workshops) for children 0-3 years old, toddler group for children 1,5-3 years old and primary and elementary school for children 3-6 and 6-12 years old. 2
1.3 Purpose of the Ha
ndbook
This handbook is created with an aim to provide teachers, particularly those working with young children aged 3 to 7, and all those interested in NTC program implementation with standards for the NTC program. The book offers information about the concept of NTC program, knowledge and methods needed for the Program implementation in daily education and care. If you read carefully and implement accordingly, the handbook will provide you following competencie: • Understanding of key factors of the NTC program implementation • Knowledge about educational neuroscience from the perspective of creativity and functional knowledge development • Understanding the crucial factor of play in the process of learning • NTC-relevant key skills and competences for children aged 3 – 7 • Understanding of implementation phases of NTC program • Designing activities focused on psychomotor skills • Designing activities focused on abstract classification, seriations, and associations • Designing activities focused on the development of divergent and convergent thinking, and functional knowledge • Understanding of the Program effectiveness implementation based on previous research and experience • Skills for working with parents on a child’s development
1 . 4 T h e t a rg et aud
3
ience for the h
andbook
This book is mainly intended for kindergarten and school teachers, but it can be greatly beneficial for students of preschool and school teaching professions, educators and workers with young children or parents who wish to use NTC activities with their children. In short, the handbook is intended for anyone having an enthusiasm towards a new system of learning based on the encouragement of optimal biological development and functional thinking.
n o i t c u d o r t n I 2) tory s d n a y r o t s i H 2 .1 g ra m o r p C T N e h t d n behi Danilo with friends at “Blue rabbit” kindergarten.
The NTC program was created as a result of years long research in the area of creative learning and thinking development. It is a specialized educational system of learning, intended to parents, children and teachers at schools and kindergartens. The NTC centre of education in cooperation with educational institutions (Faculty of Philosophy Novi Sad, Faculty of Education Ljubljana, Faculty of Teacher Education Rijeka, and several schools in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia) has been researching the issues of improvement possibilities of intellectual capabilities of children for years. The author of the NTC program, Dr. Ranko Rajović, gathered a team of specialists in pedagogy, education, neurophysiology, special needs education, psychology and genetics, and framed an effective and simple program offering the possibility of monitoring and measuring the accomplished results. Uroš Petrović is the author of enigmatic questions (type of lateral thinking questions technique), the part of the third phase of the NTC program implementation. A study carried out by professor Pol E. Hannon showing that specialists in neurology play nearly no part in creating school programs was the reason
encouraging Ranko Rajović to create the Program. The necessity to integrate more neurophysiological knowledge in formal child education and that “utilising the full potential of a human mind during the pivotal period of childhood, along with dedicated and educated parents and teachers, opens the door to more creative learning, with accelerated cognition and easier identification and development of capabilities” is Rajović’s basic perception. At the beginning of the Program creation process, the author started implementing exercises during playtime and conversations with his youngest son Danilo. At that time, Danilo was three years old (he is fifteen today). The achieved results, i.e. Danilo’s evermore growing interest in learning, his constant need for the playtime to be continued, as well as the joy that followed our first steps exceeded all expectations. At that time, this still experimental approach started to be implemented in Danilo’s kindergarten group and already in the next three years it became accredited by the Serbian Ministry of Education. Those first days of the NTC story were followed by the positive atmosphere among children and teaches, but also by the reactions of parents, who were “forced” to play new games and discover the abilities of their children. 4
First NTC techniques with Danilo
About the author of the NTC Program Ranko Rajović, the author of the NTC program. Rajović is a specialist in internal medicine and he holds a magister degree in neurophysiology and a doctoral degree in the physiology of sports. He is a UNICEF associate for early childhood education, guest lecturer at several faculties in different countries, a long-time member of Mensa’s International Board of Directors and a member of the Gifted Children Committee of Mensa International (the chairman from 2010-2012). In 2015, he was awarded by Mensa International (MERF- Mensa Education and Research Foundation) for the intellectual contributions to society. He is the author of 3 books, 6 handbooks and 8 didactic games for the development of overall abilities of children from birth to age twelve. He works at the Faculty of Education in Koper, Slovenia.
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the f o s r a l l i P 2 . 2 In the preschool period, the number and pace of formed connections between neurons is incomparably higher than after the age of seven. There is a battle for dominance between the neurons going on inside the brain; new connections are being made between the active neurons, as well as the new regulatory pathways. Development of important brain regions is being stimulated, an entire network of neural pathways is being formed, while the inactive neurons and pathways are cleared out. This early brain stimulation answers the question of whether a child will reach his/ her biological potentials or not. Precisely this is the reason why the emphasis of the whole NTC program is put on the kindergarten and preschool age.
es s a h p s t i d n a N TC p ro g ra m and practicing information, i.e. knowledge integration. According to the basic premise of the NTC methodology, motor development plays an important role in cognitive development of a child, and certain problems (such as learning disorders, concentration problems and attention deficit) can be a consequence of inadequate motor development and overall modern lifestyle trends that often entail little physical activity. The second premise in the core of the NTC Program states that early childhood is the most important period for brain development that is why implementation of the Program rests on the development of motor abilities
The NTC Program is a program of activities designed to promote the development of motor and cognitive abilities in preschool and school age children, and the key role belongs to parents and teachers. It rests on research findings in the field of neuroscience and pedagogy. The aim of the Program is to develop functional knowledge and creativity by increasing divergent production 6
and promotion of physical activity in preschool- settings of kindergarten and school activities. age children. The program is suitable for all preschool and Due to its neurophysiological approach, the NTC school children. It is particularly aimed at program adequately complements kindergarten discovering children’s talents and encouraging their abilities. Although the Program and school curricula mainly focused on the developmental psychological aspects. Thereby, implementation enables teachers, both in the Program enriches everyday activities with schools and kindergartens, early detection of strong domains of individuals, there is no risk suggestions of specific games aimed at the motor and cognitive development. The games of elitism as it is the case in some specialized are designed to connect everyday experiences programs for gifted children. The methods of the Program represent a good basis for of a child in the most meaningful way and individualization. therefore are very adaptable to different Among others, the goal of NTC education for teachers is the development of following professional competences: • recognition, cultivation, and stimulation of learning potential and psychomotor, intellectual, creative and practical abilities of children, as well as the development of their motivation for learning, self-image and social behaviour. • creative thinking and problem solving based on skills of creating questions based on divergent thinking and questions of higher cognitive level, and preparation for play-based activities. Program is being realized in several phases, in small groups (15-25 children) under the leadership of trained specialists and teachers with the “NTC system of learning” certificate. Along with the Program implementation, there is a periodical assessment for every age group, so that the development of children would be optimally guided and followed. Some of the activities and games are already present in kindergarten and school curricula, in which 7
case only minor adjustments are needed. In the handbook, we will describe some of those games and exercises for which we believe are unfairly forgotten. With the right motivation and persistence, the NTC program can be easily implemented. Three implementation phases are described below.
Phase I of the Program - stimulation of neural connections and pathways development The brain develops intensely until the seventh, maximum to twelfth year of life. Until a child reaches this age, the implementation of specific exercises and activities can significantly help to develop their biological potential. Unfortunately, the number of children with developmental disorders constantly grow and the problem lies, to an extent, in the general lack of aerobic activities among children which in turn influences decreased volume of particular brain regions, such as basal ganglia.
A key element of the first phase are evolutionary accordant activities, characterized by complex motor abilities that include elements of fine motor skills, dynamic eye accommodation, rotation, balance, coordination, and movement. These activities activate large regions of the cerebral cortex and stimulate their interconnectedness, which consequentially aids cognitive development.
Phase II of the Program - stimulation of cognitive processes development The second Phase of the NTC program is characterised by mental classification, serration, and association. The associative learning promotes the development of cognitive skills such as reasoning, comprehension, memory, synthesis, transfer of learning, etc. The associative learning is important not only to memorize and to learn the lesson but because it represents a basis for later functional knowledge (parallel associations and mental
classification). By stimulating this type of learning, we help children to increase their level of functional knowledge. The NTC program considers one particular cognitive aspect to be very important for early stimulation and that is the aspect of mental classification and serration and associations (through symbolic representations) from a child’s fourth, i.e. fifth year. 8
a) Although the abilities of serration and classification are important for the development of mathematical and logical thinking, the NTC Program puts a focus on the development of abilities of abstract serration and classification. b) The advantage of the associative learning, compared to classical repetitive learning, is noticeable already after one month of Program implementation. Even the pupils with learning difficulties exhibit noticeable progress. Though, it has been shown that gifted children benefit the most from the NTC program implementation, probably because the Program stimulates the development of associative divergent thinking, thereby fostering giftedness and facilitating early detection of gifted children.
Phase III of the Program - stimulation of functional thinking development The third phase covers development of divergent and convergent thinking, as well as functional knowledge. This implementation phase is what distinguishes the NTC program from other programs and which is a specific approach to the development of divergent thinking and functional knowledge.
As shown in PISA test results, the central European pupils have a low level of functional knowledge and have difficulties in connecting the information they already know. By solving and creating a specific type of questions and stories, children are encouraged to think in a new manner and thus increase their level of functional knowledge. All three NTC Program phases are implemented through play that constitutes the key factor in the NTC Program implementation, as it is an intrinsic motivation of every child. The three phases described above encompass sensorimotor and cognitive development in children. The NTC Program has been implemented in 17 European countries; in 7 of
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which has been accredited by the Ministry of Education (Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina), while in others (Italy, Greece, Sweden, Iceland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Slovakia and Sierra Leone) is being conducted in collaboration with educational institutions. The mission of the Program is carried out through the NTC workshops and summer camps for children, accompanied by the education of parents and teachers in a form of seminars, lectures, and workshops. The Program has been implemented in Serbia since 2009, through the Primary School Teachers’ Association of the Republic of Serbia. Initially, the Program consisted of short workshops that lasted 3 school grades. Around 6,000 teachers attended the workshops through the Winter Meeting of Teachers of Serbia. The Teachers’ Association of Serbia assessed the NTC Program as the best of the 20 programs that were previously implemented. The call from the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia came soon, and after the joint review, the Program was recognized as a seminar, and the Ministry approved the accreditation and implementation of the Program in pre-schools and elementary schools.
Since 2010, about 40 educational institutions (elementary schools and preschools) have gone through the complete training of 3-month period, around 1200 school and pre-school teachers a year, in total. Since 2011, the Program has surpassed national framework and started to be implemented within the European Union, i.e. in Slovenia, with the support of the Faculty of Education in Ljubljana and the Faculty of Education in Koper. About 400 school and pre-school teachers go through a complete training in Slovenia annually. After Slovenia, the Program continued to be implemented, in addition to being verified by national ministries of education, in several other countries: Serbia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. 10
e c n e i c s o r u e n l a n o i t a c u d 3) E The pedagogy, neuroscience, and psychology join their powers in a field called educational neuroscience. Its aim is to provide general insight into the complex dynamics of learning in order to improve the educational process. The NTC’s work and main guidelines are based upon the new discoveries from these fields. The general problem lies in the great effort to join the neuroscience and pedagogy because the new discoveries in science find a slow way to their practical application, especially when the multidisciplinary approach is required. When working with children, the latest neurophysiological discoveries are insufficiently used, and sometimes decades pass until the scientific discoveries are applied in day-to-day work. During this time,
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generations of children grow up, deprived of crucial assistance, meanwhile we have alternatives at our fingertips. The question is: What is going to happen to our children who are still being educated in an old-fashioned, surpassed, and inefficient manner? In a preschool age, a child’s brain develops very intensely, which makes this period of life probably the most important for forming the scheme and framework for a child’s future skills and abilities. It is time to bring new discoveries into practice through helping preschool and school children to develop their biological potential. We will now introduce several important areas of research upon which the NTC program relies.
ev d n i a r b y l r a E 3 .1
e
o i t a l u m i t s y l r a lopment and e
Studies clearly show that intellectual abilities are closely related to the number of synapses. The process of synapses formation so-called synaptogenesis never ends. However, it is most intensive in the first years of life. The importance of early development is evident in this example: A boy, blind on one eye, was a mysterious case for doctors in Italy long time ago. It took them quite some time to determine the cause of the boy’s blindness: as a baby, he had one eye covered for 10 days due to a mild infection which caused permanent blindness (prof. Susan Greenfield, Oxford UK). The most intense period of synaptogenesis occurs in the first few years of life. The Brain imaging studies reveal that overall brain metabolism rises comparing to adults twice faster by 4–5 years of age and remains high until 9–10 years of age. First two years of life are defined by remarkable neural processes and synaptogenesis (Horska et al., 2002). Although brain size between the ages of two and five years does not change much, synaptic remodelling is particularly active during this so-called ‘plateau’ phase of development (Tau and Peterson, 2010). Findings like these help us understand the importance of childhood and especially the first few years of life for brain development. Brain’s energy consumption and the duration of the REM
n
phase (that is longest in the earliest period of life and is important for the development of neural pathways) in young children, show the importance of the first years of life for brain development. The significance of the early experience is evident in a number of examples, but especially at the level of the entire population. For instance, the Maori are extremely musical people, so scientists thought they must have had a special musical gene (prof. S. Greenfield, Oxford). But it was later established that it had to do with early stimulation. Equally impressive is the fact that in Mongolia there are fifty names for chestnut horses, and children use most of these names already around the age of five. The fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt can run faster than calculations by
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sports physiologists, who defined the time in which a human could complete a 100-meter run, based on parameters of a human body. As a child, he spent most of his time running up and down the lawn, where he used to play football. The field was uneven, so he was often forced to run down the hill, mainly because of his father who would not have let him spend so much time playing. Each time he would spot his father coming home (by motorcycle) from the distance, the small Usain run down the hill as fast as he could, to be able to come home before his father. When he was in the field, a bit further from his home and he was not able to see or hear his father coming, he brought his dog, which started running as so as it heard the sound of the motorcycle. Each time the dog started running Usain followed him. So nowadays, when he jokes, he says his
3.2 Impact of a n en
v i ro n m e n t
The significance of an environment for early development is a well-documented phenomenon. We only need to remember the previously mentioned example of the boy from Italy whose mom covered his eye at a very sensitive developmental stage, leaving him blind on that eye for the rest of his life. The eye was covered only for 10 days but it was enough for the brain to render connections from the eye to the visual cortex as irrelevant.
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first coach was actually a dog. In this way, the impulses were sent to his brain that sprint was a very important activity, so his brain developed more synapses needed for this activity. If someone started with athletics training after the age of ten, it is clear that they would not be able to beat Bolt’s record, because their capacity for the development of new synapses is reduced, which again reflects the significance of early stimulation. This gives rise to the fundamental question: Is early stimulation significant for the development of intellectual abilities, if we already know that it is significant for motor, speech, graphomotor and musical skills?
The circumstances under which we live and have grown up evidently influence the quality of our life. For example, growing up in severe
poverty, being exposed to neurotoxins or childhood neglect brings numerous consequences and often has a negative impact on the emotional and cognitive development of a child. A well-known study carried out in 1977 showed, that children which grew up in foster homes, had a significant delay in physical and mental development and were more susceptible to serious infections. Nonetheless, the impact of environmental factors can be seen from the brighter side as well. For example, children those grow up in a bilingual
environment often show cognitive advantage compared to their monolingual peers. Besides this advantage, bilingual children are better at sustaining and focusing attention, creative problem solving, have increased mental flexibility and the ability to see a thing from different perspectives. The list of environmental influences on the development could go on and
on because ultimately everything we are or are not, have or do not have, directly or indirectly can be traced back to the world that surrounds us. It is less known but maybe even more fascinating that acquired traits and lifestyle of one generation can significantly influence traits and lifestyle of future generations.
y a l p h g u o r h t g 3.3 Learnin The play is an intrinsic motivation of every child and a natural way of learning. The significance of play for a child’s future success was shown by a study conducted a great while ago. In the 1970s, the German government sponsored a large-scale
comparison in which the graduates of 50 playbased kindergartens were compared with the graduates of 50 academic direct-instructionbased kindergartens (Darling-Hammond & Snyder, 1992). Although at first, the direct instruction-based approach offered some success in school, by grade four the children from the direct-instruction kindergartens performed significantly worse than those from the play-based kindergartens on every measure that was used (particularly reading, mathematics, and the ability to socially and emotionally adjust).
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3.4 Importanc e of ph
y s i c a l exe rc i s e
It is often forgotten that physical activity is our necessity and not a luxury. Until the age of twelve, the human brain goes through intensive developmental stages. Children possess enormous energy that is biologically given to them for movement, through which important brain functions develop, structures interconnect and new neural pathways form. Through complex movements like walking uphill and downhill, skipping, jumping, rolling, running, climbing, tumbling, etc., the child prepares for life by developing basic biological functions. The human organism has a very difficult task of maintaining homeostasis in the age that 15
is marked by rapid change. The sedentary lifestyle is the first factor to be blamed for the growing number of diseases and disorders of modern society. The sedentary behaviour of children, particularly the one including screen time, has been linked to inadequate cardio-respiratory fitness, high BMI, diabetes type II, hypertension, asthma, ADHD, and poor executive functions. Moreover, the level of aerobic fitness of children is directly correlated to the volume of certain brain structures such as basal ganglia, as well as to children’s cognitive abilities, such as attention and cognitive control.
e w t e b n o i t c e n n 3.5 The co
e func v i t i n g o c d n a r en moto
Immediately, after birth, the sensory and motor cortex undergoes dramatic changes and adjustments. These changes are followed by changes in the associative cortex, corpus callosum and lastly prefrontal regions important for higher cognitive functions. Besides their elementary function of processing sensory and motor information, these regions also play a role in the development of frontal parts of the brain, as well as associative cortex which function, among others, is to integrate information from the sensorimotor areas. Some scientists even claim that the regulation of movement is the brain’s primary function and other brain functions are evolved in order to
tion
provide the body’s optimal reaction. If we draw a simple analogy and say that sessile organisms do not have neurons or nervous systems, whereas mobile organisms have a nervous system, it is clear that upright gait and movement are important characteristics of human beings and that movement is critical to brain development. This is particularly important for children as the brain develops most by the age of 5, which is why walking and running have to be one of the main activities of a child. The idea of motor and cognitive development correlation is not new. Piaget held that sensorimotor experiences are critical to cognitive development. Furthermore, Bushnell and Boudreau suggested that motor development functions as a control parameter for further development as some of the motor abilities can be a precondition for new developmental functions, such as perceptual or cognitive abilities. 16
A lot of research has been conducted to date regarding examining and understanding the potential correlation between motor and cognitive skills of children, as well as adults. As a result of a statistical review of the literature done by Sibley and Etnier, it has been concluded that there is a significant positive correlation between physical activity and cognitive functions of children. We will mention several studies that explored this correlation. Hillman and his team found that preadolescent children perform better in school tests after 20 minutes of walking prior to the test. The brain regions responsible for focused attention and filtration of noisy distractions, i.e. cognitive control was shown to be highly active in comparison to the control group (children who did not take a walk
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prior to test) (Hillman et al., 2009). Other studies concluded that regular physical exercise showed improvement in the object recognition memory and that physically fit children have better language skills than their peers. Those children with better language skills had faster and more robust neuroelectric brain signals during reading, in comparison to less physically fit children. Research carried out in 2015 showed that physically fit and active preadolescent children show greater hippocampal and basal ganglia volume, greater white matter integrity, elevated and more efficient patterns of brain activity and superior cognitive performance and scholastic achievement. The long-term effect of properly developed fine motor skills was also studied. As shown by Grissmer and his team,
on the school readiness test, fine motor skills, together with attention and general knowledge, have shown to be much stronger overall predictors of later math, reading, and science scorer than early math and reading scores alone. A recent study by Chaddock was the first to investigate the correlation of cerebral blood flow in the hippocampus, brain region important for learning and memory, and aerobic fitness in children aged 7 to 9, found that aerobic fitness is directly linked to the greater activity in the hippocampus. Basal ganglia are not only important for motor control but these structures also contribute to a variety of cognitive
functions, such as learning, memory, and planning (Aron et al. 2009). It is shown by Chaddock and colleagues that childhood aerobic fitness is associated with deep brain structures and function. Compared to their peers, higher-fit children showed greater volumes of the dorsal striatum (a component of basal ganglia) as well as better performance in a test that measures attention and inhibitory control. Even after a year, aerobically fit children performed better at cognitive control and working memory tests. Much research carried out recently suggests that a cerebellum, besides its well-known motor control function is directly linked to cognitive processing.
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4)
m a r g o r p C T N e h t r o f d e e n e Th
4 .1 D e t e c t i n g a
p ro b l e m
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an internationally standardized assessment that was jointly developed by participating economies and administered to 15-year-olds in schools. It evaluates education systems worldwide. The significance of this test lies in the fact that it assesses the level of applicable, i.e. functional knowledge. Results of the last couple of cycles show a low level of applicable knowledge with children from European countries (primarily from Southeast Europe), South America and Africa. The question is: how will functionally illiterate children go to school, complete university studies, and be economically productive in 20
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years? Therefore, it is necessary for us to think ahead and develop strategies in kindergartens and schools. The work strategy should get adapted to the changing environment, as the environment affects the development of the overall abilities of a child. If we look at genetics as a 100% important potential, we have to know that the environment has almost a 100% influence on the development of that potential. If we look 20 years beyond, we can see a great change in the environment, while school and kindergarten curricula have not changed significantly in those 20 years and the same methods of work have been present in many countries for decades. Looking from this perspective, it is clear the environment is one of the key factors in child development, and unless we do not adapt our work to those changes, children will pay the price and have been paying the price already, as evidenced by an increasing number of children with developmental disabilities. Curricula should be adapted in a way to enable today generation to develop themselves, their creativity,
On one hand, the level find of functional employment knowledge with easily and create children who have completed opportunities for the elementary school is low, and on the other development of the economy and the country. The majority of the 10 most sought- hand, there is a common belief that children after professions did not even exist 10 years are below average in many developmental domains today. A study carried out in ago, meaning the school system prepares Slovenia has shown that teachers believe children for professions that do not even today’s generations of children have less exist yet. Learning by heart has been surpassed in the world in which connecting developed abilities and cognitive bases information becomes much more important (motor skills, attention, and concentration, reasoning, and problem-solving, general than mere fact memorizing. Our duty is to knowledge and vocabulary) than generations transfer knowledge to children and enable them to take in information by using better of children five, for example, ten years ago. An increasing number of teachers and methods while teaching them to think, experts share this opinion, which could be connect, come to conclusions and create justified by numerous studies. In the region new ideas. The priority of the educational system must be the development of thinking of Southeast Europe, the number of children with developmental disorders is on the rise. – acquiring knowledge in a way that will enable its application, rather than learning In comparison to the previous generation, by heart and storing information. Precisely a changing trend has been noticed with regard to developmental problems, such as this is the fundamental and essential speech disorders, dyslexia, dysgraphia, and mission of the NTC Program. orthopaedic disorders, disorders regarding 20
attention deficit, behaviour, emotional, and impulse control. Several studies carried out in the past 10 years in the countries of the former Yugoslavia have shown that approximately 70% of preschool children have flat feet. All these issues indicate the existence of a persistent and progressing problem that is yet to be understood.
not a luxury.
Until the age of twelve, the human brain goes through intensive developmental stages. Children possess enormous energy that is biologically given to them for movement, through which important brain functions develop, structures interconnect and new neural pathways form. Through movement (walking, skipping, jumping, rolling, running, One of the important characteristics of climbing, tumbling, etc.) a child prepares for people is upright gait and movement. Fine motor skills, dynamic eye accommodation, life by developing basic biological functions. speech, balance and rotation-based play are The human organism has a very difficult important for optimal brain development. As task of maintaining homeostasis in the already mentioned, the most intense period age that is marked by rapid change. Some consequences are more and some less of synaptogenesis occurs in the first few obvious, but it is a fact that the sedentary years of life and overall brain metabolism lifestyle is responsible for a growing number comparing to adults rises twice faster by of diseases and disorders of modern society. 4–5 years of age and remains high until The sedentary behaviour of children, 9–10 years of age. Findings like these help us understand the importance of childhood particularly the one including screen time, and especially, the first few years of life for has been linked to inadequate cardiac respiratory fitness, high BMI, diabetes type brain development. However, it becomes II, hypertension, asthma, ADHD, and poor increasingly evident that one of the main executive functions. issues of modern lifestyle is sedentary behaviour, a more general lack of physical activity and its deteriorating effect on child development and health. It is often forgotten that physical activity is our necessity and 21
o i t u l o s s d r a w o 4.2 T If we connect the fact that children who are about to complete elementary school have a low level of functional knowledge, and that child who is just starting school has lower and lower motor abilities (as well as attention and concentration), it is clearly necessary to find a solution. The world has been changing rapidly and these are all relatively new challenges, which the majority of employees in education has not encountered until recently. In order to raise the question of functional knowledge, it is necessary to help children develop their biological potentials. In order to successfully develop a child’s potential, early stimulation, in accordance with the human evolution, must be the centre of every learning system. That is why early stimulation is an integral part of the NTC Program and its implementation. Although the importance of early childhood development and the existence of early stimulation programs have been widely recognized by many renowned institutions, most of these programs focus on a narrowly defined segment of development and often, only on a particular age, or a specific group of children. The innovation of the NTC Program is precisely reflected in the fact that child development is approached in a comprehensive manner; it includes all segments of development, with the ultimate goal of encouraging functional knowledge and therefore, preparing a child for the future. The NTC Program is characterized by the implementation of early stimulation through
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the play. It is important for children to be stimulated by the environment to play, while using complex motor movements (rotation, balancing, spinning around, jumping, etc.), whereas those movements are not inherent goals of the play. In addition to activities that should be included in early stimulation, the Program is dedicated to raise the parents’ awareness of the activities and behaviours that can have a deteriorating effect on the child’s development. Caring for the child’s upbringing must be a priority, and a stimulating environment is crucial for that matter. While formal operations and forms of abstract thinking get introduced after the age of ten in most school systems, the second and third phase of the NTC Program are characterized by cognitive processes – abstract classification, serration and association – which are being introduced in work with children already after the age of three.
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– h c a o r p p a e t i t r a p i r t a r o f d e e n e h 5) T y g o l o d o h t e m k r o w d n a n o i t a z i l a e p ro g ra m r The basic premise of the NTC methodology is that motor development plays an important role in the cognitive development of a child, and that certain problem (such as learning disorders, concentration problems, and attention deficit) can be a consequence of inadequate motor development and overall modern lifestyle trends that often entail little physical activity. In order to stimulate optimal motor and cognitive development of a child, the role of parents is hugely important, especially, in the earliest phase of NTC program implementation.
knowledge. It is very important to include schoolteachers into implementation as well. For a good implementation of this third phase, successful implementation of previous phases, for which the parents and teachers are responsible is necessary. It is obvious that only through the cooperation of parents, kindergarten teachers, and schoolteachers, it is possible to realize the NTC program completely.
Proper development of intellectual potentials is a very complex process that requires good cooperation and joint action of many factors, among which stimulating The second premise in the core of the NTC Program states that early childhood is the most environment at home and kindergarten is particularly important. Individuals, mainly important period for the brain development. parents, who spend a significant amount of Therefore the kindergarten teachers, with time engaging with children, assist further the help of parents, play a crucial role. It is development of their interests, answer their equally important for teachers implementing questions and provide warmth and support the NTC program to introduce parents the for a child’s intellectual explorations, help Program, its basic ideas, and methodology. further encourage the development of child’s giftedness. The significance of the environment Since the aim of the NTC program is to could be understood in the following thought develop functional knowledge and creativity experiment. by increasing divergent production and encouraging the connection of acquired For instance, intelligent parents had a child and it turned out somehow, that this child has lived for five years in a white room, having no one to talk to. Will this child be equally intelligent as his or her parents? No, of course not. Will the child be intelligent 50% or perhaps 30% as his or her parents? No, perhaps not even 10%. Therefore, it is clear that the environment is significant almost 100%. Similarly, important is genetics, but only as a potential developed in a stimulating environment. 23
pt 5 .1 P a re n t s - o
t n e m p o l e v e d l imal biologica
There are several phases and aspects of the NTC Program System of Learning implementation. The first and fundamental phase of the Program is the education of parents and parents-to-be. The education of parents is carried out via seminars and published books that describe and offer advice on both theoretical and practical aspects of the NTC Program, as well as workbooks for children.
potentials. It is a fact, this period represents the base upon which the future intellectual development of child will depend is still scarcely researched area. And parents, often unwittingly, do incorrect things with their children or simply do not know how to optimally stimulate their child’s development.
Many mistakes are made on this path and most of them are made with good intentions. The NTC program puts parents to the centre of We will concentrate on two that are very responsibility because they have a crucial and relevant today. One of them is that parents, daily impact on a child. During this period of in their desire to protect a child, overdo it, early childhood, kindergarten teachers can play and so we have a widespread phenomenon a notable role in helping parents properly direct today which is overprotection. This problem their child’s activities, thereby encouraging might sound trivial at first but it is not. It can overall child development. Many parents do have numerous consequences. Starting from not even know that by allowing (or disallowing) poor motor activity, such as an overall lack of particular activities, they hinder the proper physical activity and complex motor activities, development of their children. Excessive to the partial inability of children to take care TV watching, video games playing, physical of themselves and their needs once they are inactivity and lack of graphomotor activities adults. are all damaging and weakening Below are two authorial texts that the development will bring you closer to of particular the issues we are biological discussing:
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E WORLD H T S N A E M G IN P M JU PUDDLE and explore y la p to is ty u d ’s d il h C Ranko Rajović
Have you ever met a healthy child who doesn’t wish to walk into, jump in, out or splash water in a muddy puddle? Where does this need come from? The most important brain function is to collect and then to process information, which in essence is the intelligence. This is why a child during the period of development has instinctive need to gather as much information, i.e. to learn as much as possible. This will be clear if we imagine the following situation: we are running from a group of wolves that is approaching. The pack will probably catch us up in two or three minutes. And we only have two minutes to get to the shelter. At that moment, the brain takes over complete control and does not ask us anything because there is no time to think. Each movement and each detail is now important. Our life in this situation depends on what we have learned up to that moment. At full speed, 20 m ahead, we see a branch at the level of the hips, obstructing the road. Abyss is on the right and dense forest on the left side. It is obvious that we cannot turn anywhere from the forest pathway. Since it is a life-threatening situation, the brain activates its spare capacity and operates seven times faster. In that situation, it receives more images than usual. Therefore, it seems as if we are in a slow-motion scene and one second seems to last like seven. In real terms, a man runs 20 meters in 3 seconds. But now, it appears that we will never get to the branch and that it would take us 20 seconds to get to it. Where does this superb brain’s ability to slow down time come from? This is an evolutionary adaptation that has been developing for millions of years because that is the way the brain provides additional time in order to find a solution. And while we are running towards the branch that we cannot reach, the brain realizes that there is not a single leaf on it while the environment is full 25
of leaves. The brain sends us a childhood picture when we were breaking dry branches as kids. We figure out that the branch is dry and realize that we do not even have to jump over or pass under it but just to break it with our body at full speed. What if we didn’t break dry branches when walking through the forest? Maybe we would stop in front of this dry branch and lose precious 3 or 4 seconds. Maybe even our life. It is clear that the most important brain function is information gathering that will be processed in case of necessity. That is the way that connections between certain parts of the cerebral cortex are created which positively affects the development of cognitive abilities of the child. Processing and linking of information is the essence of intelligence. So, it is understandable why a child must jump into the mud, climb trees or jump on the bed. That is how the development of their cognitive abilities is being stimulated. The question is what will happen with a contemporary child who lays around for 2 or 3 hours. In these moments, the brain is being deprived of thousands of impulses and therefore important physiological mechanisms (dynamic eye accommodation, the fixation of the object in motion, complex types of motion in running, etc.) are not being stimulated enough. One may think that playing video games is a good way for the brain to receive thousands of impulses, but that is not an activity that is in accordance with human evolution. Tesla‘s well-known thought is that we are the product of continuous adaptation throughout centuries and that great and sudden changes may cause unforeseen and presumably, catastrophic consequences. That’s why it is important for a kid to spend as much time as possible running, leaping, jumping over, wriggling or to spend time in nature, climbing trees, etc. That’s how kids activate and stimulate the development of important parts of the cerebral cortex. Therefore, parents‘ duty is to enforce these activities because that is how they stimulate the development of overall kids‘ abilities and prepare them for life. There are many things that parents can do. For start, when rain shower periods are approaching, it would be excellent for a child to get rain boots and to walk or even jump into a puddle of mud for as long as he or she wants. Instead of restraining, we should ensure our kids a safe environment for exploring and enjoying nature. 26
Another problem tightly related to overprotection is a problem of filling children’s time. Parents today believe that they are not dedicated enough, reckless or even don’t love their children enough unless they make an effort to fill their child’s time completely. When a child is not entertained by a certain activity, let him/her alone feel bored, parents will find themselves almost
in a state of alert. Not realizing it is a normal thing and only one of the numerous moods a child needs to experience and learn to handle, they interpret a child’s “I am bored” as a rescue call and what is worse, as their mistake.
IFFERENTLY D S K IC T K C LO C ’S D IL THE CH ence time? ri e p x e n re d il h c o d w o H Iva Rajović
Are we there yet? Almost, we’ll arrive in a bit. [in a bit] Are we there yet? We’ve just told you “in a bit”. Well, a lot of time has passed. It only seems to you so. Ugh, we’ve been driving for thousand hours. We have been driving for half an hour. We will arrive in 5 minutes. How long is that? As a Buggs Bunny cartoon, from the beginning. [eternity passes] Even though five minutes should last the same to everyone: five minutes, these few moments for a five-year-old pass differently than for a twenty-five-year-old. With a pure calculation, we will determine that a day of a five-year-old child lasts as circa 1/1.800 of their life, while a day of a fifty-five-year-old person lasts circa 1/20.000 of their life. Scientists say that our pace of time is inversely proportional to the square root of our age. This means that a year passes a three and a half year slower to a five-year-old than to a fifty-five-year-old. Many people say that time flies and it seems, the older a person gets, and the more they believe this to be the truth. It seems to the life happened in a blink of an eye. But it is not just a matter of maths here – a proportion between today and all days lived until today. There is more to it. 27
When everything is new and nothing is assumedt For children, every experience is novel or at least not yet anchored and turned into a routine, a routine perception or a routine response. For example, a little child close enough to a window to see a pigeon that just landed on a window sill will experience this happening very intensely. A series of reactions will follow – everything that is related to this event will be new. During just one day, a child goes through such unusual and new experiences many times. An adult, even if looking out of the window, and even if noticing the same pigeon, probably would not pay a big attention. And why would they? They have seen plenty of those and know that a pigeon will sit on a sill for a while, say a few “coo” and then fly away. Nothing new, nothing unexpected and nothing wrong with it. Everything in its time, mental energy is not to be scattered easily. During the period of intense brain development, the amount of mental energy needed for normal functioning is immense. Until the age of four brain metabolism becomes twice faster than adults and remains so active until the onset of puberty. A child learns incredibly fast and the energy resources are invested almost entirely into the present moment because mental models of the world must be continuously adjusted for optimal adaptation to be achieved. On the other hand, adults have set patterns according to which they function and rarely step out of their mental habits and routines. This important brain function, neural adaptation, by making frequent stimuli go unnoticed, provides optimal and efficient use of cognitive resources. However, this optimization means less processed information at the level of consciousness and level that requires attention. Consequently, less “dense” memory is formed, which in turn influences time perception. 28
When time ceases to existt Even though it seems, especially retrospectively, that the years of childhood pass slowly and that time takes it easy, children spend most of their “awake” time in the activity in which a sense of time totally disappears. This activity is play. During the play, a child experiences so-called state of flow, which is a state of exaltation, total concentration and absorbed by present activity. A person becomes their work, a child becomes their play, and both selfawareness and time-awareness disappear. In these moments of exaltation, dopamine is secreted, our biological reward in a form of experience satisfaction. The more familiar and less unknown the world is, the higher the probability of survival. Accordingly, behaviour that reinforces curiosity and searches for novelty is worthily awarded. Even though this behaviour is also present in adults, in children it is undiluted. Dopamine plays an important role in time perception, so it doesn’t surprise that time passes to children differently. Diseases, which are characterized by an abnormal dopamine level, such as schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, and ADHD, also lead to noticeable distortion of time perception.
Everything in its time Allow children for their time to pass slowly, because this preciousness is not endless. Do not stifle their time with various activities with a sole purpose to provide continuous entertainment. Why? What will they learn about themselves and the world if you tirelessly “fill” their time? They will learn to chase it but not to create it and feel it. Let them feel the weight of time, loose themselves in time, learn to live time and not run away from it. “Time flies” to those who are running away from it. To a child, time simply is; yesterday and tomorrow are just some fuzzy words adults use. They have yet to learn to project mentally themselves. Nature made it this way and if “time flies” to us, it doesn’t mean we are doing something wrong. If adults functioned like children, the cognitive apparatus would overheat, fall apart. But a child’s world is just being formed, and besides satisfying basic needs, nothing is taken for granted, nothing is expected, nothing is “normal”, “that’s the way it is” and “it’s good, no big deal”. Everything is of epic proportions! 29
Just think, how many trials and errors a child needs for a simple, but appropriately used sentence such as: “I feel sick”? What all comes before this seemingly trivial achievement? The child heard someone saying “I am sick”, and so they tried this expression when they had a runny nose or when they were too hot. But the response of the environment was not appropriate. On the other hand, how many moments of motion sickness have passed in agony - the child feels something is wrong, seeks for an adult’s attention and help, then gets frustrated not knowing to explain the problem, ultimately leading to the helpless crying. How much time and cognitive effort it took for a simple match such as “I feel sick!”. The following reward cannot be underestimated because it comes in a form of appropriately orientated attention of the adults, even if it is only stopping the car for ten minutes. This match, correct pairing leaves the child feeling “that’s it!”. With time, one “that’s it!” after another leads to an ever-growing sense of security, ability to predict outcomes, one’s own and other people’s reactions, habit formation, and autopilot functioning. The world becomes a less unknown and more predictable place; a child becomes an adult. There is nothing wrong with it. The ability to notice causality is rewarded in life. Time flies because we constantly race against it. Most of their time, children are exactly where they are. Have you ever observed how carefully they tie their shoelaces or surprisingly watch a pigeon through the window with amazement? As if tomorrow does not exist. On the other hand, it seems that for adults only tomorrow exists. If we stop for a moment, maybe children will teach us to appreciate the exact moment we are in.
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5 .2 K in d e r g a r t e n teachers – motor a n d c o g n it iv e d e v e lo p m e n t ( d e v e lo p m e n t o f t h o u g h t p ro c e s s e s) While the focus of parental education is more in the first phase of the NTC Program, which is optimal biological development and early stimulation, the education of kindergarten and school teachers is emphasized in the second and the third phase of the Program – development of functional knowledge. Education of teachers is carried out through seminars and follow-ups with the purpose of the proper practical program implementation.
In everyday work with preschool children, it is important to include elements, which stimulate cognitive development of children, but also specific exercises, which encourage motor skills and movement coordination, helping to prevent possible attention and concentration deficit issues. It is equally important to develop reasoning skills and functional knowledge.
What is important for teachers to know? It is necessary that kindergarten teachers understand the importance of physical activity and motor skills for overall child development. A physical activity represents one of the key factors of wellbeing. Although the influence of physical activity on adults is indisputable, it has a much stronger influence on children. Due to the nature of their actively growing and developing organism and very plastic brain, especially, in early childhood, their sensitivity to environmental factors and lifestyle is immense. Therefore, the physical activity of children is not only tightly related to their physical abilities but it also plays an important role in their further growth and 31
development – physical, cognitive, social and emotional. The children with good motor skills have a better awareness of their body and have more self-confidence. The physical activity influences the formation of new neural pathways. A child with good motor skills will be not only physically active but also positively accepted by their
peers, whereas a child with poorly developed motor skills will be often excluded from the play by himself/herself alone or by the peers. These situations, especially when they happen in early childhood, will influence not only the motor competence of the child but also their general psychological and socialemotional state of the child.
Many studies imply that the cognitive skills of children are directly related to their motor abilities and time spent in physical activities. It is clear, that physical activity and optimal development of motor skills should be a priority for not only parents but for kindergarten and schoolteachers as well.
How is the NTC program implemented at kindergarten age? The NTC program at kindergarten and preschool age is mostly implemented through the NTC physical exercises. These exercises include activities that stimulate both motor and cognitive processes by entailing elements of fine motor skills, rotation, balance, dynamic eye accommodation, eye-hand coordination, complex movements of jumping, over jumping, backward movements and integration of movement and thinking process (abstract classification and serration). Earlier studies show that regular kindergarten activities entail very little activities containing these elements.
Therefore, a need was recognized for the creation of games, i.e. exercises that would entail listed elements. The activities are done through the play, so children would be willing to participate and enjoy them. An unwritten rule confirms that the more elements a game entails, the more interesting it is for children. With the help of such games, several cortex regions are being activated simultaneously: sensorimotor, visual, auditory, and associative regions (motor, sensory and visual). Besides these, other brain regions are activated as well, especially, cerebellum. 32
5 .3 S c h o o l t e a c h e rs – c re at i v e thinking and funct ional thinking Especially today, it is essential for children to learn problem-solving skills, to adopt a creative approach towards problems and to develop functional thinking. The repetitive learning represents knowledge acquisition in a ready-made form, which sometimes complicates the comprehension of concepts and/or their contents. It is a simple reproduction without connecting any facts and functional knowledge. The associative learning stimulates the development of cognitive skills, memorizing, deductive reasoning, synthesizing, transfer of the adopted knowledge, etc. the associative learning is not only important for memorizing the lessons, but also because it is a basis for the subsequent functional knowledge (parallel
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associations and abstract classifications). Thus, by stimulating this method of learning, we help children to increase the level of their functional knowledge. Each phase of the implementation is demanding on its right realization, but we could say that the most demanding part is the development of the functional thinking. It was shown that this part of the Program is quite difficult for adults to understand and to implement. But once they do, children readily accept the realization because this type of thinking and learning is more familiar to them comparing to adults. By properly implementing the NTC program, parents and teachers can do much for the development of children’s biological potentials.
e h t f o n o i t a t n 6) I m p l e m e n e t r a g r e d n i k P ro g ra m i n It is very important thing to understand at the beginning, the implementation of the Program does not require any expensive equipment. The greatest resources are teachers, their motivation and creativity, and the methodology. Additionally, once children learn the Program’s methodology, they continue to implement it and benefit from it. And that is when they start learning their teacher about the vastness and the potential of the NTC program. At the beginning of training, we give only guidelines how, and through which activities to implement the NTC program. If a teacher learns the methodology right and uses the techniques in their daily practice, the Program does not take a lot of extra time or additional activities compared to activities already used in kindergarten curricula. An experienced teacher
will not implement the NTC program each day for thirty minutes or so but will integrate NTC elements into every game and activity already presented in the curriculum. Indeed, this is not possible before a teacher understands how the Program “breaths�, before when they know which activities are important, WHY they are important, and how to implement them through the play. In order to prevent the implementation from being overwhelming at your very beginning of the NTC journey, in the Handbook, we will present few activities of each phase, which can serve as a starting point of the implementation.
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6 .1 I m p l e m e n t a t i o n phase I - stimula tion of n e u ra l c o n n e c t i o n s a n d p at h wa y s d e velopment The physical exercises regularly used within the NTC program are complex polygons, which require a child to be in constant movement, to pay attention to balance, to do rotations, to use fine motor skills and dynamic eye accommodation, to observe what is going on around and all of this while performing cognitive tasks.
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Those elements we often find in old, almost forgotten games, such as marbles or elastic game. It is always desirable to add some new element to an existing game in order to increase increases the level of complexity and difficulty of a game. Here are some the NTC games that you can use in everyday work with children. They will also guide you in creating your own games:
“Paper ball-throwing”: making paper balls out of chopped newspapers and shooting a target or paper basket placed one meter away. A slightly more demanding version of the game involved two 6-8-meter-long lines at a 2-meter distance from each other out in the yard and the children grouped into two teams aiming at the opponent team while on the move and dodging paper balls thrown at them. Children are divided into two teams. They stay behind the line and shoot each other. They are constantly in movement and have to avoid the paper balls thrown at them. A child hit by the ball is out of the game.
“Stork”: stork on a wire, a one-foot rope stand. After a while, i.e. when the children master the game, a ball can be passed to them as they’re performing the one-foot stand, which they should throw into the box placed on the floor one meter away.
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“Squirrels, basketball players”: throwing chestnuts into (plastic) cups. When they master the basic version of the game, they get more difficult task: randomly arranged cups with stickers on which a specific bird is presented (e.g. swallow, crow, colibri, raven, condor). The goal is to use mental serration during the game. A child throws the chestnut first into the cup with the sticker of the smallest bird (for example colibri), gradually reaching the cup with a sticker of the largest bird (and this should be the last chestnut). Time is limited to 30 seconds. Every seven days, five new animals are introduced in order to always have complex cognitive processes. When children master this level, instead of birds, we introduce flags for example. On stickers, we can either put a flag of a country or an association (e.g. Eiffel Tower for France, four-leaf clover for Ireland, etc.). The learning of countries is not a part of the kindergarten curriculum, so for the requirements of this game, children acquire the necessary knowledge through the other NTC games (for example every week, children wear a badge of a particular country. This way, they learn names of many countries, recognize them on a map, they learn the sizes and few associations). This game is played three times a week for 5 minutes.
“Nesting sparrows”: two-foot jumps forwards and backward into white, yellow, and green hoops. Upon landing into a green hoop, the child is supposed to perform a squat. Upon landing into a white hoop, the child is supposed to perform a rotation. Upon landing into a yellow hoop, the child is supposed to perform a one-foot stationary jump three times. This game is played every day for 15 minutes.
“Cinderella”: picking grains from the table and throwing them into a plastic cup. When children get enough skilled with this movement, grains are placed into a bowl of flour so children cannot see the grains. The goal is to pick up a specific type of grain (corn, rice, wheat, etc.), and put it into another bowl. Once they had mastered this skill, children are supposed to collect the grains using only their thumb and pinkie finger as their index, middle, and ring finger are taped together. This game is played twice a week for 15 minutes.
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“Froglings”: leaps from a crouching posture. In each leap, the children are required to say a word from the vocabulary they were expected to learn (names of wild animals, domestic animals, colours, objects, etc.). Later on, we introduce a clap for every jump. This game is played twice a week.
“Smashing of cones”: a competition game played twice a week. Children are divided into national teams (e.g. Serbia, Mexico, Italy) and then they make their own cones out of toilet paper rolls – they paint them with particular colours and then stack them according to the colours of “their” flag until the flag is formed. This way they also learn flags, which is useful for other NTC games as well.
“Building the leaning tower of Pisa”: stacking wooden sticks, blocks, or other small objects. This game is played once a week.
“Cowboy”: a dance where children clap and stamp to a particular song with a particular rhythm. This game is played once a week for 10 minutes.
“Walking books”: a race along the 2-meter stretch of the magic line in which a child is balancing a book on their head. A more complex version of the game involves walking while reciting a nursery rhyme.
Understanding the importance of listed games The more elements the game has, the more interesting it is for children. An increase of complexity means an increased number of complex movements and more complex cooperation of different modalities (sensorimotor-cognitive) required. Moreover, when a game is complex time passes very quickly to children and the concentration is kept on a very high level. They are motivated to stay in the game longer and are in a continuous movement. The NTC activities that stimulate the development of fine motor precision, fine motor integration and manual dexterity are present in the several NTC games which children should play 2-3 times a week. These games last 10-15 minutes in average. The game “Paper ball-throwing”
is aimed at developing fine motor skills and precision, as well as dynamic eye accommodation. This game is interesting for children but after the elements of rotation, balance and movement are introduced, it becomes often the most popular game. With constant watchfulness regarding paper balls going their way and actions of the players of the opposite team, this game encourages the performance of complex movements (bending over, running aside on a line, turning around or running backward, catching balls and throwing them, dynamic eye accommodation, object fixation in movement). In the game “Squirrels, basketball players”, children develop fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination and through the introduction of stickers, complex cognitive processes is involved, which makes 38
the game even more interesting but also more useful for the integration of the motor and cognitive processes. The advanced version of the game “Cinderella” activates sensorimotor and associative brain regions (motor, sensory and visual). The game “Smashing of cones” contains elements of fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, and dynamic eye accommodation. Through this game children also learn flags, which is useful for the other NTC activities. The game “ Building the leaning tower of Pisa” includes the stacking of objects, which put a focus on fine motor skills development. Activities, that stimulate bilateral coordination and the coordination of the upper body, are included in several different games. These games are played 2-3 times a week. They are played 10-15 minutes a day. The game “Cowboy” also develops
bilateral coordination and the coordination of the upper body. The activities that contain elements of dynamic balance are included in several games that are played 2-3 times a week (10-15 minutes a day). By requiring dynamic balance, eye-hand coordination, and dynamic eye accommodation, the game “Stork” stimulates large regions of the cortex. The game “Walking books”, besides dynamic equilibrium, is aimed at encouraging complex cognitive processes and movements (rotation, balance, jumping, walking backward and side walking. The games that contain elements of strength are „Sparrows in the nest“, where children are making two-feet jumps back in and out of a hoop and „Frogs“ with jumps from a crouch position.
Several general remarks • In every activity, the safety of children comes first. For this reason, before each game, it is necessary to provide safe conditions for every child. • Adjust distances, heights, durations, and level of difficulty and intensity of every game. • Pay attention to children’s motivation. The play is an intrinsically motivated activity , which you should always have in mind while practicing NTC (and others) activities with children. • The games listed above are some of the most popular NTC games among kindergarten children. However, your goal must not be to use only them. The goal is to create new games based on acquired knowledge. If this step seems too huge, start with modifications and incorporation of new elements to the games we listed. 39
n o i t a l u m i t s – I se I a h p n o i t a t n e 6.2 Implem t n e m p o l e v e d s oces r p e v i t i n g o c f o The second phase starts with the learning children to recognize abstract concepts. It is the most adequate to use symbols and concepts that surround children, such as car logos or country flags. At the beginning, children are presented with recognizable abstract symbols, which is the activity they exercise every day. The games with abstract symbols are not only useful per se but they are also a basis of subsequent parts of the Program that are more complex. When children master a certain number of flags, the teacher can move on to teaching associations of the countries whose flags they have already learned. This is realized through the presenting children country flags and they need to respond with an association on the presented country. For example, a teacher says: “pizza”, a child says: “Italy”, then the teacher says: “Rubik’s cube”, the child says: “Hungary” etc. That is the very beginning and as children master basic concepts, they are guided towards higher-level
learning. A question we can ask a child who has mastered the basis is: “What do the flags of Portugal and Italy have common but flags of Spain and Greece do not have?” or “Through which countries do we pass on our way from the Czech Republic to Serbia?” To facilitate the introduction to the world of associations and symbols, we use the NTC puzzles created for this purpose. With the NTC puzzles, children can master the second phase of the Program (abstract classification, serration, and association) much quicker and easier. A more complex and very important technique of the second phase are illogical stories and fairy tales. The illogical story is a technique used for memorizing concepts and words. It consists of making a story out of three (or more) words, i.e. nouns. A story should be as simple as possible and not have many additional words.
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Examples of different stories made of same words: WORDS: panda, traffic-lights, and newspaper LOGICAL STORY: I have seen a panda and traffic-lights in the newspaper. MEANINGLESS STORY: Traffic-lights ate the panda, while the newspaper was watching it. GOOD ILLOGICAL STORY: Panda is sitting on the traffic-lights and reading the newspaper. The first story is logical, while the second one is meaningless. Both, logical and meaningless are to be avoided and you will learn that with time. Especially at the beginning, children usually create meaningless stories, and you need to help them to transform them into illogical. The third story, illogical one, is good because it is simple and can be easily imagined and drawn, which is the main characteristic of a good illogical story. The illogical story should be as simple as possible and add new words, i.e. nouns should be avoided because the illogical story is used when we want to memorize the particular word or concept. If we want to make the story more remarkable, we can use adjectives. Another problem, especially, at the beginning, can represent words that don’t fit the story well. Mostly, these are abstract nouns, so we first need to “prepare” them for the story by turning them into concrete nouns. And this we do by creating an association for the abstract word. Here we have an example of good and an example of bad illogical story (same three words): WORDS: tennis, fear, bicycle BAD STORY: Tennis is afraid of a bicycle. GOOD STORY: Novak Đoković is running away on a bicycle from Casper who is chasing him. Shortly, a story should be as simple as possible; use associations and adjectives and avoid adding other nouns. While creating a story always ask yourself whether you can draw the story. If you can, it will probably be a good illogical story. 41
Illogical Fairy Tale is a technique in which we combine illogical stories with the elements of some familiar fairy tale. Most commonly, there are fairy tales whose plots and characters are well known, such as Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, The Three
Little Pigs… We create illogical fairy tale by adding elements we want to memorize into the known plot of a fairy tale. A good example is the Little Red Riding Hood with associations about China:
EXAMPLE OF ILLOGICAL FAIRY TALE: Little Red Riding Hood was walking through the woods to bring some rice to her sick grandmother. As the road, which was going over Wall of China, seemed too long to the little girl, she decided to take a shortcut by going through the bamboo forest. Suddenly, a gigantic starving panda attacked her. Luckily, Jackie Chan, who was having a training nearby, heard this. He came running and scared away the panda by shooting at it with porcelain vases. Soon after, with the help of a compass, he found the shortest way out of the forest to Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother. All new elements included into the fairy tale are in some way associations to China: rice, bamboo (not only for China but in China it is a symbol of longevity), panda (lives in southern regions of China), Jackie Chen, whose ancestors come from China, etc. As it is evident from this example, we should keep it simple and add only those words that we want to memorize. These can be associations to some country, but also keywords from school lessons. If we need to memorize the words in a particular order, we can integrate them into the plot in that same order.
On picture below, Illogical fairy tale “Snow White and seven dwarfs“ is presented:
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For many NTC techniques, a pictographic representation is needed. Whether we talk about the pictorial representation of a rhyme, illogical story, or definition, implementation principle is the same. The first step towards creating the good pictographic representation is to come up
with good associations for all the words we think are important for the text we represent. The second step is to connect meaningfully these associations so that we create a story out of these pictures, such as comics. Here we present one example of this technique:
FUNNY JUNGLE
How to hide this shame
In a hustle of the jungle
Barefaced now he’s there
Vanished moustaches of a lion
So he’s announcing to all
All, while he was napping
That a silly barber does his hair
For a hunt embattling
And that the barber, well yeah
Before he could run away
Cut the moustaches away.
Someone stole them away
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I I I e s a h p n o i at 6.3 Implement g n i k n i h t l a n o i t unc f f o t n e m p o l e dev The third phase is characterized by activities that encourage the development of functional thinking. The main techniques we use are associative questions, lateral thinking questions (such as enigmatic question), problem-solving questions and circular associations. We will present some of them below. Problem-solving questions and problem-solving thinking For example, when children learn a lesson about domestic and wild animals, they are presented with the following definition “the domestic animals are those animals that humans take care of and their natural habitat is next to people. The wild animals take care of themselves and their natural habitat is in the wilderness.� A typical question for children after this lesson would be to list three wild or three domestic animals. But it would be better to ask: if a chicken runs away into the forest and lives there, is it then domestic or wild animal? After some thinking and discussion, children realize that this chicken is still a domestic animal, although it lives now in the forest because it cannot take care of itself completely - a fox will eat it within
two or three days. The children conclude by themselves what a habitat is and that natural habitat for a chicken is a chicken coop. Enigmatic questions and stories Enigmatic questions are made in order to allow one or two minutes of intensive thinking, connecting, and reasoning. With this kind of approach, at an early age, a child learns to apply the knowledge and to actively use obtained information in order to reach new conclusions and gain new knowledge. In the group work, an enigmatic question is fruitful only if the correct answer comes after several minutes or more of guessing and thinking. Good questions are those to which a correct answer can be given without having all the information but by correctly connecting information one already knows with information one just learned. 44
How to make a good enigmatic question (as instructed by Uroš Petrović, the author of the enigmatic questions): • A question is created so, that only one meaningful answer is possible. • A well-formulated question will not encourage simple listing or counting • A good question can be answered by somebody who does not know all information implied by the question, but can connect and relate different information. • The questions can be thematically created. Make the question (and potential answers) familiar to children to make a playing process as interesting as possible.
Several examples of enigmatic questions: 1.
2.
3.
4.
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What characteristics distinguish human beings and ants from all the other living creatures on the planet Earth? These are only two species leading wars. These types of questions are based on a certain peculiarity or some interesting information.
What do oxygen and Pinocchio have in common? A tree. These types of questions are based on associations to the central term, in this example that is: a tree.
Who gives us commands in colours and we obey them? The traffic-lights. These types of questions are based on seemingly simple information that is transformed into the question.
Which mouse is mom not afraid of? Computer mouse.
Several examples of Enigmatic stories:
Example 1 Grandfather went for a walk with his granddaughter Maria every day after lunch. Usually, they went to the park nearby, where Maria used to climb up the slide, slide down and enjoy a beautiful sunny day. The grandfather watched his joyful granddaughter for a while, shortly smiled and said to her: “Maria, look at me and try to give me an answer!” While sliding down, Maria shouted: “Grandpa, is it one of those special questions of yours?” He looked at her and said: “It is Maria. Tell me, who does always follow you on a sunny day?” The child laughed and answered: “Well, it is you, Grandpa!” Grandfather: “ I follow you also when it is cloudy rainy and sunny but this follows you only when it is sunny.” Maria stopped at the ladder leading to the top of the slide, stared at the Grandfather for a while and joyfully said: “Shadow”! Grandfather: “Bravo Maria! The right answer is shadow!”
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Example 2 Milica liked helping grandma to prepare dinner in the kitchen. The grandmother often gave her dough to knead it with her hands for mini rolls, to cut vegetables, or lick the cream from a whipper. Milica liked listening to grandmother’s stories from the time she was young. Of all the stories, she liked the most the ones of grandma doing her make-up, dressing up, meeting grandfather. Sometimes, they got into the talking so much that the milk boiled off, mini rolls burnt and water for coffee completely steamed out. Both of them started laughing in these situations and started with preparation again. Milica loved that grandmother had plenty of time to dedicate to her. The grandma also liked to ask questions that seemed to be difficult at first but when thought through, answers became obvious. Grandma: “Mica, tell me do you know in front of which object mom and dad stand every day and look at it? Mom looks at it more often than Dad.” Milica, not even looking up from the jam she was just preparing for mini rolls, responded: “It is easy! The TV!“ Grandma smiled: “They sit in front of the TV but they stand in front of this.“ Milica, lifting her left eyebrow: “Then it must be a wallpaper?” Grandmother, while washing the dishes replied: “Well, it is not wallpaper. They do not look at it every day. At this mysterious object, they look mostly in the morning, before going to work.” Milica, rolling the dough for the rolls looked at grandmother and replied confidently with a smile: “A mirror!”
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Example 3 Father picked up Milan from kindergarten. Milan always expects his father impatiently because they always walk on their way home, discussing that day’s happenings from kindergarten. Today was a special day because they were supposed to visit a nearby ZOO. Milan was talking excitedly about what he learned about animals that day in the kindergarten. Milan: “Dad, did you know that each giraffe has a specific pattern of spots?” Father: “Similarly, every human has a specific pattern of lines on their fingertips, known as fingerprints.” Milan: “Wow, so we are like giraffes! “ The father smiled: “Well I know someone who is like a giraffe because he really likes to sleep, just like a giraffe.” Milan, not realizing that the father is talking about him continued: „Did you know, that an elephant has a very good memory? The teacher told Luca today that he had a memory of an elephant! Father: “Now let me ask you a question. Across which animal do a lot of people step on daily in the city?” Milan looked at his father confused „Why would people step on animals? I know! Maybe ants. We do not even see them, so we accidentally step on them.” Father: “An ant is an insect but no, it is not ants. This one is named as an animal but it is not an animal.“ Milan: “Maybe a frog? I do not like frogs, and they are also green.” The father, unable to hide his smile, caressed Milan on his head and said: “I do not like frogs either but people do not step on them that often. This animal helps you to be safer in traffic.” Milan punched his forehead and yelled: “Zebra!” Dad, approvingly nodding his head said: “Bravo Milan, zebra is the correct answer.”
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e c i t c a r p m o r f s e l p m a x 7) E It seems that the most important step of every education system, and at the same time the biggest challenge for the authors, relate to the process of familiarizing participants with important ideas and fundamentals of the Program. By highlights the importance of early child stimulation, development of fine and gross motor skills through the play and movement, development of dynamic eye accommodation, divergent thinking it seems that the NTC program easily overcomes this obstacle. The simplicity and easiness of the Program implementation is already noticed during the education and the experience of everyday implementation with children only confirms that.
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Although the NTC program is based on scientific studies from the field of neuroscience and integration of neurophysiology of learning with pedagogy with the aim of developing creativity and functional knowledge of children, operationalization of the ideas of the NTC program through its content, activities, games, questions, illogical stories etc. comes into everyday educational practice quite easy and “naturally� and easily. The reason for this is that values, upon which the Program is based are in accordance with the values highlighted by the regulations regarding fundamentals of preschool education.
• Holistic approach: One of the basic postulates of the Program is that a child is treated as concrete and whole being, and not an aggregate of abstract attributes, characteristics, and skills. Creation of educational process includes motor, artistic, musical, language, discovering, practical, logical, perceptual, and ecological activities, activities in the field of socialemotional development, that all support and foster early stimulation of overall child development. • Innate/intrinsic motivation (intrinsic motivation as a basis of learning at a young age): the NTC program recognizes that children have their own motivation to learn, to develop, to understand themselves and the world that surrounds them and exactly this intrinsic motivation is used as a constructive engine of the educational process – children are happy while they learn, explore, discover, try out, test their ideas and hypothesis. As it is quite difficult to encourage intrinsic motivation directly, the NTC program cultivates and stimulates intrinsic motivation through specific games and many different activities that encourage a child’s natural curiosity and the need to explore. The NTC program integrates two important elements: intrinsic motivation to learn and physical and social environment as an element of encouragement of this valuable form of motivation. • Autonomy and respect for personality: As very important values of the educational process that the NTC program recognizes and supports are independence and autonomy of a child, as well as individual responsibility and authenticity of expression and action, supporting persistence of finishing and repeating those activities that are meaningful to a child.
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• Individualized approach: The Program fully recognizes the worth of individualization in work with preschool children and that no two children approach the educational activities in the same way. Therefore, the Program enables each child to progress at their own pace, depending on their personality, personal experience, attitudes, and skills. A teacher continuously interacts with children through the realization of the games and activities, which is one of the postulates of individualization. • Play as a form of learning: By recognizing the importance and specificity of play as an especially valuable form of preschool learning during which children activate their capacities process and acquire experiences, two ideas are being interlaced through the NTC program: “play as a form of learning” and “learning as a play”. The role of an environment, to which the NTC program gives a crucial role in the process of early stimulation and support of skills development is to activate all domains and potentials of a child, understanding the importance of the process itself, during which a child explores reality, evaluates their own experience, creates new models and enjoys this discovery. Through the implementation of all three NTC phases, new games have been created, whereas some old ones have been adapted and enriched based on new knowledge from the NTC program. As a reminder, the first implementation phase includes complex motor activities, such as fine motor skills, dynamic eye accommodation, rotation, balance, and movement. The second regards abstract
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classification, serration, and association, while the third phase is focused on the development of divergent and convergent thinking, as well as functional knowledge. In constant interactions with children, the teachers are implementing all three phases of the Program through the play, which as an intrinsic motivation of a child, represents a key element of every implementation aspect of the NTC program. We will list some of those games.
o t n e m p o l e v e D 7.1
i v i t a e r c d n a n o f c o m m u n i c at i
ty
The goal of these activities is the support the development of mental skills, which enable a child to use organized symbolic systems in communication. This is done through painting, dramatic play, and language, musical and dancing activities.
• “Animals in the main role”: a dramatization of the known improvised texts, with the use of country-specific animals as main heroes (Panda-China, Bear-Serbia, Kangaroo-Australia...). • “Costume party-carnival”: Specific themed costume parties – carnivals. The themes can be symbols of particular countries, folk costume, characteristic flora or fauna, and many others. • “Long-distance travel”: Children with help from teachers organize a trip to some country. To prepare for the trip means that children explore and find out many things about their destination: how to travel to this country, with what type of transport, what the weather there like, what clothes to bring to the trip, which places should be visited, what are famous sightseeing, what is the national anthem, then listening to the music characteristic for that country, what kind of food they eat there, etc. Children that want to “travel” must have a ticket and the ticket is a drawing of traveling country’s flag. Parents can also join this activity. • “How to tell you…”: children learn to greet in different languages.
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• “Art corner’’: children draw the flags of countries using different painting techniques: markers, mosaic, collage, water colours, Play Doh… they make windmills, boats, tulips… country-specific symbols, car models, joining painting techniques with particular countries: Japan-origami, China-painting on silk… ‘ • “Origami’’: by using the ancient eastern technique, children make different paper figures. • “Dress up Petra”: a doll called Petra is dressed up by the children in different folk costumes, specific for a particular country. • „Start with a letter...“: Children have different tasks: 1) to say as many words as possible that start with the same letter as the first letter of the country they picked; 2) with a body movement or pantomime to create the first letter of that country’s name; 3) to say the longest and the shortest country names; 4) to count as many countries as possible which first latter is the same as the first letter of their name. • ‘’ Children’s country’’: children create and draw a flag of their imagined country, create national anthem, emblem and other symbols of their country. This activity can be practiced at the level of a kindergarten group or at the level of kindergarten. • “Earth dances”: dancing improvisation on music themes characteristic for particular countries.
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n e m p o l e v e d e v i 7. 2 C o g n i t
t
The aim of discovering and practical logical activities is to get to know the symbols used to mark different situations, occurrences, objects (familiarizing, acquisition) and connecting of abstract symbols and logical operations (classification, serration...) • “Memories”: memory game with cards of country flags or other symbols: traffic signs, car logos, brand logos, symbols for different practical, cultural, hygienic activities (different symbols for toilets, wheelchair, call box, places for changing baby’s diapers). • “Enigmatic stories and questions”: Through stories and questions that don’t rely on reproductive knowledge, children are encouraged to use the information they already have, connect them and learn something new. • “Illogical stories”: Children are encouraged to create new stories by putting elements from well-known stories and fairy tales into unusual context by using associations from some country - Pinocchio in Japan, Cinderella at Canes, Little Red Riding Hood at the Chinese wall etc. • ‘’Continue the series’’: Different logical series, in which the child is supposed to continue a series with an adequate symbol. In the first phase series are concrete
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(stickers, cards…), in the next step, children continue series by creating mental representations. • “Models, nets, maps, road signs”: City maps, road maps, geographic maps, traffic signs… We are exploring with children the meaning of symbols, orientation, cardinal points... Children make models of their room, kindergarten, street, some landscape with represented symbols of hills, valleys, rivers. • “Chess”: Children are introduced to the rules of chess. They play chess with existing sets of pieces. They make their own pieces of plasticine, mud, paper… They play the chess at the table, floor, on the floor with big pieces…” • “Eliminate the intruder’’: the goal is that a child recognizes the symbol that does not belong to the group of symbols according to specific criteria. • “Little meteorologists”: children are taking notes of the weather conditions during some period and use appropriate symbols to mark a particular type of weather. • “Groups and little groups”: children create groups: car logos and countries, flags with a star, bird, green colour... • „Mental travel”: children first set up the goal of their journey – some country. Then they need to say through which countries they pass on the way from their home country to the chosen destination. In the beginning, they do it by looking at a map or globe and in the next phase, they need to make “the travel” mentally.
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n e m p o l e v e d r o t 7. 3 S e n s o r i m o
t
Games and activities from this group allow children to gain different motor experiences, improve skills, master complex forms of movement, keep the balance, develop and improve eye-hand coordination, improve their perceptive experience in the function of precise and good observation. • ‘’Ball games’’: children are throwing - catching a ball with the hands (not with whole arms), they pass on the ball in various positions: rolling it - along the line - among obstacles, with both hands, one hand, play bowling with a ball aiming set up cones. • ‘’Polygon’’: children run through polygon stations, wriggling, crawling, jumping, spinning around, walking on a beam. Polygon can be enriched by adding additional elements, for example, some country at the final point of polygon where different characteristics and symbols of the country will be. The winner is the team that collects the most symbols or their country. • “ Darts”: original dart games (without the sharp tip but with the magnet). Children can also throw paper balls onto the target drawn on hamer paper. • “Basketballers”: Children throw balls or paper balls into a basket. • “Fishies“: with the help of sticks and ropes (as fishing sticks) at which ends are magnets or Velcro, children catch fish made of carton box, that also has a little magnet or a Velcro. Each of these games can be organized as a competitive game. If played so, the teams will be from different countries, meaning that for every team has its own signs - flags, symbols of that country… 56
• ‘’Eliminate the third’’ – finding a detail, which makes one of the flags different from the others (for example, one has stars and the other two do not, even though the colours of the flag are similar/same) • “Unusual pins” – children are divided into several teams. Every team represents one country and the task of every team is to make a flag out of the same number of pins. However, pins of needed colours are on another table. A task of each child from the team is to go through the polygon in a particular way (for example: to kneel when passing green coloured cones, turn around when at red, jump twice at yellow, to say a word beginning with the same letter as the country of his or her team at blue cone etc.) and when they come to the table with pins, they take the pin just by using a thumb and small finger. With this one pin, the child runs back to the table of their team and creates a flag out of the pins. • “Puzzle - Tangram”: children make puzzle, parts of tangram (with different number of elements) into flag, symbol of a country, some other symbol known to children, map of Europe. • “Macrame”: children tie knots, every knot can be marked with a flag. • “My fingers can ...”: children rip the paper into pieces as small as possible, napkins, glue together elements of mosaic, bend a paper into the smallest parts… model/knead the dough… draw on a powder spread on a plastic tray, find little objects/toys hidden in the bowl of any flour, clip-on, clip off, tie the laces. 57
7. 4
lopm e v e d l a n o i t o m Social-e
ent
Games and activities from the field of social-emotional development create awareness of one’s culture, the tradition of one’s own nation and also connectedness with cultures and traditions of other nations. They support authentic development and expressing of the child, strengthen a child’s independence, selfconfidence and self-care. It is necessary to emphasis especially on those activities increasing awareness of the importance of environmental protection through specific and practical daily activities. In this domain offers a good possibility to integrate the NTC games with other games or activities related to socialemotional development. • “Board of emotions”: Children are encouraged through different activities to recognize, articulate and verbalize their emotions. The emotions are noted on the board or children note them individually and keep in their “Personal box”. They also make a “Machine for measuring love”, “Anger cushion”… • “Albums and collections”: Children make their ecological albums of animals/ polar animals/ domestic animals/flora by cutting the pictures from magazines or old worksheets. They make collections of different bird feathers, grains, shells, stones, leaves... • “Toy / musical instruments making workshop”: children with teachers/parents make toys, musical instruments out of natural and recycled materials. • “Eco badges”: children make badges and draw symbols they created themselves based on their tasks for the following period: watering of flowers, feeding of animals (if there are some in the kindergarten), paper collecting, taking care that recycling rules are obeyed… 58
e c n a t r o p m i s s e c c u s f o n o i t a m r i f 8) C o n n o i t a t n e m e l p m i m a r g o r P f o s t i f e n e b and e g a n e t r a g r e d n i at k Nearly a decade of the NTC program implementation leaves a clear impact that is reflected in numerous impressions and gratitude letters from kindergarten and school teachers, parents and even children themselves. We often mention an anecdote related to a boy who, after finishing the NTC workshops, told his mother: “I want to live in the NTC!”. Children attending the NTC workshops will often do anything not to miss even a single workshop. Despite having a broken leg, one girl by no means wanted to miss the workshops, so her father needed to carry her to every workshop. The whole group adjusted to her by placing her to the centre during polygon activities and even made a specific task for the girl. It happened many times that parents call in the name of their child asking for the possibility of attending one or two workshops in a different city (when they visit grandparents for example) because children do not want to miss the activities. These genuine and honest testimonies and gestures of children are the most important to us because they indicate to
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us that we go to the right direction and represent the biggest confirmation of our success. What we have been particularly proud of for the last couple of years, which is the time we have been working with children directly through the NTC workshops, is that NTC children have started being “recognized” when entering primary school. More and more parents of those children with a lot of gratitude let us know that the child has shown above-average results on school readiness test. The parents also comment the reactions of teachers once they find out the child attending the NTC workshops, which is 1) they’ve noticed that children attending the workshops are way ahead of the other children, 2) they are not at all surprised by the child’s test results, and 3) they themselves often think the work done at the NTC workshops can be more effective than curricular school work.
8 .1 T h e P r
lt u s e r n o i t a t n e o g ra m i m p l e m
s
The number of studies that evaluate the NTC Program methods increases every year. So far, the effects of the NTC methods implementation have been tested on both school and pre-school age children and younger children. These studies cover different aspects of motor and cognitive development. Firstly, we will mention some of the studies related to motor development of preschool and kindergarten children in whose everyday activities NTC methods have been implemented. Finally, we will take a look at some studies covering nonphysical aspects of the NTC implementation.
• The aim of this study conducted in 2015 at two kindergartens in Kranj, Slovenia (Rajović, Stenovec, & Berić, 2015) access the level of gross motor skills of children in the NTC program. As part of the physical activities following the regular kindergarten curriculum, the experimental group had incorporated elements from the NTC program (fine motor skills exercise, dynamic eye accommodation, rotation, balance, and movement), while the control group was engaged in regular physical activities, just as usual. After two months of implementation, the final assessment showed an evident improvement of the children in the NTC group. The significant statistical difference was observed for the exercises of walking on a line – forward, walking on a line – backward, long jump backward, and squats in the NTC control group. • A study conducted in Slovenia aimed to evaluate the impact of the NTC Program on fine motor skills (such as tying shoelaces) and gross motor skills (walking on a line – forward, walking on a line – backward, long jump - forward, long jump - backward, and squats) of preschool children (aged 5-6). Results showed that the most substantial difference in progress is exactly the motor parameter of fine motor skills.
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• In the period between academic years of 2010/11 and 2014/15 five generations of preschool children in Croatia was monitored. After everyday realization of the NTC program within the 5-month period, remarkable progress (compared to the initial testing) in the development of specific abilities was observed). The tests included: fine motor skills tests, catching of a ball, balance, and rotation. Daily practice of the NTC activities showed a significant performance improvement of measured abilities for this short period of time, especially balance testing and rotation, as well as catching of the ball in the comparison to initial assessment. • Even though no study yet examined early stimulation effects of the NTC methods on children with developmental disorders, a case study of a pre-term born boy who was diagnosed with neurodevelopmental problems could offer an insight into the possible impact of the NTC methods. The deviations from typical development were evident in almost all areas. When the child was 18 months old, mother began with intensive the NTC program implementation. He started progressing quickly, improvements in all areas became evident; agility, speech, recognition of Cyrillic and Latin letters, symbols, animals, he started reading, understanding the concepts of two-digit, and even three-digit numbers. He learned to classify animals into different categories (such as domestic, wild, and sea animals). By implementing the NTC program one year, mother helped her child achieve, and according to many parameters excel, average abilities for that particular age. • A study done in 2015 evaluated the impact of the first phase of the NTC system of learning. The study compared the results of children from the kindergarten group implementing the NTC one year with a regular kindergarten group. Three tests for fine motor skills were used, one test for gross motor skills, one for and eye accommodation. 61
The results showed that children who participated in the Program compared to children who did not participate had better results only in tests of fine motor skills. In other areas, no statistically significant differences were found, although authors note that further improvement in the testing methodology is needed for the final conclusions about the effectiveness of the NTC learning system. • Longitudinal study accessing motor abilities of preschool children was performed in state kindergartens with two parallel groups, one of which applied the NTC Program in a period of 6 months, while the second group applied the usual exercise program. The sample consisted of two groups of children aged 4 to 6. On the basis of the applied statistical analyses, it was determined that children in the experimental group achieved significant improvement on the motor skills test • The effectiveness of the NTC program’s third phase of implementation was tested on a sample of 300 preschool children. Compared to the traditional educational work, a significant increase in positive emotions and a significant decline of negative emotions when implementing the NTC learning system was observed. This is especially important in the light of findings that indicate that pleasant emotions facilitate content memorization, as well as help with establishing the relevance of learning goals.
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• In 2015 study regarding divergent production in children who practice the NTC methods was carried out. It showed that during the implementation of the NTC methods divergent production of 4th-grade children significantly improves. Divergent production, which is a basic component of creativity, is considered to be one of the key features of giftedness and therefore, its development should be set as high-priority by all educational institutions. Divergent production is a basis of the third phase of the NTC program, based on the development of divergent thinking and functional knowledge. • Regarding school-age children, results show not only better academic success of students whose teachers have implemented the NTC program, but better achievements at the municipal and district competitions.
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e h c a e t / s t n e r a 8.2 Role of p The NTC Program faces the above-average turnout in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, precisely as it answers the questions and offers solutions to, perhaps, the most current problem - a significant change in lifestyle. The experience of parents and teachers who have conducted the NTC Program, as well as previous research pertaining to the NTC Program, points to the transformative power of the Program. In addition to the improvement of different segments of motor development, teachers and parents often report better academic achievement, greater joy in learning, better concentration and increased creativity of children. The Program successfully addresses the issues that obviously need assistance. Previous studies have shown that implementation of the NTC Program with kindergarten and pre-school age children contributes to the improvement of motor abilities, balance, rotation, gross motor skills and most distinctively, fine motor skills (see the previous section). Regarding school-age children, results show not only better academic success of students whose teachers have
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implemented the NTC Program, but better achievements at the municipal and district competitions (see the previous section). Teachers of those children noticed the decrease of the fear of knowledge assessment, as well as a high level of positive emotions in the school environment. Recently, a study regarding kindergarten teachers’ evaluation of the role of the NTC Program in the development of children was conducted. The analysis showed that kindergarten teachers see the NTC Programme as very important in the development of social skills and motivation of the child, but also personal characteristics: self-confidence, independence, and freedom in general. The central findings show that the Program affects emotional and professional development of a child, but unambiguously, it also influences personal and professional development of an educator. The phase of the Program that is particularly effective in the school environment is the third one. As it engages children in playlike activities, they report that they are less 64
burdened by lessons and are not bored. Many teachers and parents report the success of the NTC Program implementation with children suffering from various neurobehavioral and developmental disorders – case studies reported success in working with children on the autism spectrum, children with dyslexia and dysgraphia, and children with developmental delay.
Program and knowledge gained on seminars, which are reflected in the surveys that evaluate seminars accredited by the Ministry of Education. The NTC seminars have been bestranked seminars In Serbia, ever since the NTC seminar was accredited. We will present you with some of the comments from evaluation sheets (both, schools and kindergarten seminars):
The educators recognize the importance of the
PRIMARY SCHOOLS:
• The best seminar so far! Every school should implement this method of learning, which would enforce better quality of education. • The NTC should be systematically implemented in public education. The lecturers I have had the chance to listen to should be offered official positions in the Ministry of Education since the situation is alarming. • This type of training should be implemented globally (across Serbia). We should harmonize laws, educational system and the awareness of parents, school and preschool teachers. • The topmost competence that leads into thinking and creativity, spirituality and interesting topics. • Innovative, meaningful, superb. Both lecturers, although having different sensibilities, enable full devotion to the topic. • The best seminar I have ever been to. It will help me to improve my teaching skills and will encourage my own children to learn in a more interesting way. • The best seminar, that I have attended. It will help me to improve teaching and encourage my own children to towards more interesting way of study.
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• I am going to enjoy implementing the lessons I have learned at today’s seminar. • Extremely applicable seminar, essential to every educator. • Phenomenal, applicable and extremely useful. • So great. It seems so incredible how little we actually know about the capabilities of a child. • Everything was great! We learned through play, laughter. • An exceptional seminar that provides an ingenious way of work through play. • The NTC Learning System should be introduced as a compulsory subject in schools and every teacher should complete it. The course could have been longer. • Thank you. Attending the seminar is a wonderful way to remember we love the job because of our love for children, and that the goal of education is to develop abilities and potentials of children in every sense of their lives. • This seminar gives us hope there will be a change for the better education. All praise to you. • Interesting, productive and very useful, not only for schools but also for changing the way of thinking in everyday life. This Program should be incorporated within reforms of the educational system. This training offers a completely new way of thinking, it is entertaining and useful. I’m absolutely thrilled. I will use it with my own children and students. Thank you. 66
• A unique and innovative seminar that should motivate everyone in our country. • This is the first seminar I have left with the knowledge I could use entirely in teaching and my life. • For ten years I have been working, this is the best, most applicable and most interesting seminar I have ever attended. Congratulations and keep it up! All praise to you! • New and creative approaches to learning, very innovative and motivating. Different than anything else we are used to in our usual methods of work at schools. • Wonderful, interesting, very useful, 10+, wonderful teachers. I have never attended a better seminar. • It is a great help in learning, it enables children to like school and easily learn through play. Finally, to understand how the brain works and develops. • An outstanding experience. The hours went by in laughter, play, and interesting facts. Every parent today should have the opportunity to attend. • Thought awakening, refreshing, activating. A lovely work atmosphere. Inspirational. We do not even know how much we are capable of.
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PRESCHOOL INSTITUTIONS: • I have started to think at 55. Thank you. • I have learned more during your seminar than in my entire previous education. Thank you. • I haven’t been this encouraged to think in ages. This means a lot to me, professionally in my future work and life-wise. • The seminar is great, applicable and useful if a person has an equally good personal basis. Keep up the good work and education of developing conscience with people in the right (this) direction. A great job in supporting and highlighting the importance of a different logic. • Each moment spent at the seminar turned into a treasury of new knowledge to be immediately applied at work and shared with the others. • This seminar is a true revelation. All school and pre-school teachers should complete it. Thank you. • I am glad something like this exists in our country - a broader implementation is urgently needed. • This method of work completely changes the concept and approach to education and enables active participation of children and the development of all potentials and functional knowledge.
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• The strongest impression of the seminar is that although I haven’t received so much information and smart suggestions for my entire education, I wasn’t exhausted even for a second. • Contacts and guidance – checked; goodwill, great method – checked; just to clone yourself and the world will soon become perfect. • A very useful seminar that will help me both in my work with children in a group, as well as with my own children. I feel happy and satisfied to have learned a new system of learning. Thank you! • Information, advice, techniques, and methods of teaching useful for myself, for my children and work with other children. A perfect way to stimulate thinking, attention, learning. • A beautiful experience for me. I have learned some new ways to stimulate children, develop their thinking, all through play and making them happy. Great! • I wish the NTC Learning System became the basis for the entire education in Serbia.
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In these years of the NTC activity, many praising letters and confirmation of the quality of the NTC program have been received. Lower bellow, we would like to show two of them. The first one is from the teacher of primary school “Branko Ćopić” from Belgrade after she had started implementing the Program in the classroom. The second letter is from a teacher sent to Prof. Mojca Juriševič after the NTC seminar at the Faculty of Education in Ljubljana was held.
Working in accordance with the NTC Program helps a lot, and these are my observations: 1) Students are motivated, happier and more content 2) It encourages cognitive activities, thinking, and reasoning 3) Students happily await puzzling questions, discoveries of new words and notions 4) NTC could be applied in any teaching units in the “World Around Us” classes, especially while learning definitions from those teaching units 5) Learning is facilitated, and in combination with other teaching materials and methods, students go home with solid knowledge 6) Students cooperate better among themselves; they share experiences and propose solutions 7) Students unveil their talent, creativity, and way of thinking through working creatively 8) In classes, students use knowledge and skills I wouldn’t be able to elicit with other teaching methods 9) Students learn new unknown words from texts in a facilitated manner, while enriching their vocabulary, as well as oral and written expression 10) Learning poems by heart is done in a simpler, and therefore easier way; we managed to memorize a simpler poem during class 70
11) Learning definitions in the Serbian language classes (such as nouns are…verbs are…) is also facilitated 12) Students express their views or opinions to all questions more freely 13) Students who used to be withdrawn or insecure now express in a more free and improved manner 14) Gifted students, who managed to express their full potential just now, stand out 15) I have always been motivated, but now I have even more reasons for that, as my dear students give back in their own way 16) Sometimes, before bedtime, I come up with sentences in which I hide the term that will lead the students into a new teaching unit, and then I write down every sentence in my notebook, not to forget by morning; YOU ENCOURAGE ME TO THINK AS WELL 17) Our classes turn into a play, as well as my work with the students. Thank you, Doctor! *Dragana N., teacher, PS Branko Ćopić, Beograd (the letter addressed to Dr. Ranko Rajović)
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Hello! The NTC seminar was one of the best, if not the best, that I have ever attended! It impressed me because it sets new fundamentals on looking at child’s cognition – and that with early and adequate stimulation, children are able to handle more complex cognitive processes, as we have admitted so far. We have known for a long time, that the movement is important for optimal development of a child and this seminar upgraded this awareness by providing a clear explanation of why is it so, what is happening with child’s brain in those moments and how it is related to their subsequent development. On the seminar, I have got a clear answer to WHAT children need for an optimal development of motor skills and functional thinking and WHY it is important, which I will be using diligently, both as a teacher and as a parent. In our profession, we have a tendency to dedicate more attention to the children with learning difficulties and the NTC program provides another approach and a way to recognize gifted children, which is an additional bonus of the NTC program. Thank you again for the new knowledge and I wish you a lot of success in the future! * a teacher from Ljubljana (the letter addressed to Prof. Mojca Juriševič)
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n o i s u l 9) C o n c Today we know that organized physical activity at the preschool age can considerably affect motor development of children, as well as the development of their overall anthropological status. Preschool age is the right time to start implementing different physical exercise programs closely related to the thinking processes, such as abstract classifications, the serration, and the association. This is the period of development of basic motor abilities that will serve as the foundation for the development of specific motor skills later in life. Preschool age is considered as fundamentally important as motor abilities continue to develop at a slower pace in the subsequent stage, i.e. at school age, and any developmental progress will depend on motor proficiency that was mostly formed
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during the preschool period. Physical activity of children is very important for their overall health in childhood and later life. The recommended amount of physical activity at the preschool age is the subject of different national organizations responsible for national health care. National Association for Sport and Physical Education in the United States recommends that preschool-age children have at least 60 minutes of organized physical activities and 60 minutes of active free play, daily. Similar recommendations exist in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, where it is recommended that preschool-age children are physically active at least 3 hours daily, spend less than an hour using electronic
media for entertainment and not be in a passive sedentary position for more than an hour a day. If early stimulation is important for the development of the overall abilities of a child, then motor development is an integral component of those abilities, as it is well-known that complex movements involved in running and walking, such as rotation, balance, and dynamic eye accommodation, impact development of the cerebral cortex Lack of movement and physical activity entails a higher likelihood of poor development of certain cerebral cortex regions, which can hinder cognitive development. The numerous researches confirmed that some cognitive problems are caused by a sedentary lifestyle, particularly in the student population, as well as among middle-aged adults. Since the preschool age is a sensitive period for motor development, the implementation of the NTC program of physical exercise at this stage could bring about a substantial improvement in motor and health status of children, while at the same time promoting sensorimotor integration and cognitive development. That would result in the improvement of physical abilities in children by optimizing motor development, and it would also have a positive impact on the formation of habits that involve regular exercises. Lastly, the system would also be a valuable source of information for parents, who would be able to independently support and supervise the motor development of their children.
A healthy foundation and optimal biological development represent the basis of every subsequent developmental aspect. Movement is the basis of the overall development and for this reason, it is not possible to overestimate the importance of the motor development and realization of the first phase of the NTC program, especially at in at preschool age. You could hardly make a mistake if you start NTC implementation from the first phase, by introducing different activities that consist of complex motor movements and then continuously, step-by-step, add activities from the second and the third phase. You can implement solely cognitive exercises and activities, especially when working with older children, but it is much more useful to always integrate elements from all three phases. Not only it is more useful, but also to children, it is much more interesting and dynamic. 74
Aside from the fact that implementation results are relatively quickly noticed, the Program is primarily orientated toward the future. This preparation of children for the future usually includes maximization of their natural potential, which should be supported through
the development of functional thinking. Young people who think with their own head, know how to connect information, overcome repetitive educational system and solve problems creatively is what the world needs.
Therefore, dear parents and teachers, always have on mind: 1. Movement is the basis of the brain development. 2. Movement affects the development of cognitive skills. 3. The protection of a child is desired but overprotection and constant helping can cause harm in a long term. The wisdom of parenthood is in finding those boundaries. 4. Learning is play - a child will learn the most, without thinking about learning and when an act of learning is part of play. It is desired that a learning process resembles play, whenever it is possible. 5. Reproductive learning is often very stressful for a child. There are also other methods that help us use the cognitive capacities and these are often neglected in classical repetitive learning. 6. A child should not be bored at school, because the process of learning will be hindered. Especially so, if a child didn’t learn at young age to tolerate the state of boredom. Teaching methods must be interesting, stimulating, discovering, unusual, sometimes funny and illogical.
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t r a t s u o y e r o f e B ) 10 This handbook provides you with information necessary to start implementing the NTC program. However, in order to use the Program officially in your practice, official the NTC education must be completed, after which the NTC certificate is awarded. After you finish your education, we highly encourage you to get the first-hand experience of the Program through kindergarten and school teachers and other experts that are already implementing it in their everyday work. You will see, it is
completely different story. Therefore, we recommend to all those who want to expand and upgrade their knowledge, skills and motivation, and perspective to visit some of our NTC centres or contact the head of the NTC office who will connect you with NTC teachers in your region. The training in one of the NTC centres, by no means, can not be compared to the information gained by reading. Therefore this is an important step if you want to improve your NTC skills.
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e h t f o s n o i 11) Recens m a r g o r p C T N Doc.dr.sc. Andrea Debeljuh, University Juraj Dobrila of Pula, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Pula, Croatia I am sure that Dr. sc. Ranko Rajović is the best person in the world in this field for many reasons. The most important are: • He innovated the concept of education with a simple and logic method that is very easy to understand and fun to implement but that needs to be monitored and supported by a team that needs him as a leader • He is a simple person and not money-oriented. I had the chance to work with him and his priority is always of the participants and of the kids. Once he came to a lecture for all the school teachers of an Istrian city. On the parking when he saw a lady carrying a big box of books he stopped her and took the box! His method is affordable for everyone and is underestimated for the value it gives in comparison with other methods on the educational market. He decided to give everybody the opportunity to learn the method unlike Waldorf and Montessori schools that are very expensive in comparison while giving a less modern approach. I met Dr. sc. Rajović three years ago, during my research about the new solutions for today educational situation (I can define it as a disaster!). I teach a subject called “Work with gifted children” and I have researched all the present methodologies in the world in this field. If I decide between Renzulli (the academic holding the most popular theory of giftedness - The Three-ring Theory) and Rajović, I will choose Rajović. The reason why is that, we all know we have a big problem in education, we all made a various hypothesis why it is like that but no one, until today, has given a scientific augmented explication like him. There are some, but not as recent and today unfortunately, not anymore useful (our educational system is based on them). In addition, he
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moved a step forward, he gave the solution to the problem: a method that he implemented and that connects his knowledge in neurophysiology and pedagogy. A method that gives the parents, the preschool and the school teachers a step by step guided methodology that is focused on the holistic development of the child. From the first day, we met, first virtually and then live I strongly decided to help him with his aim to create a better educational model, which will help children to learn with a smile. We made researches that showed that children like learning but do not like school (after the first grade). On the contrary with the NTC method, everybody enjoys - children, teachers, and parents. This gives also emotional stability. In this way, Dr. sc. Rajović has provided new way of thinking development, while significantly improving the concentration and the learning skills. He does not propose specific materials, books with the exclusive use. He teaches a way of doing things. When you understand it, you have just to practice it and you become a content and material developer. To reach this level you need a good mentoring and support of Dr. sc. Rajović and his team. We research with my team at the university the effects of the NTC method and we found just positive effects. The children (and also the students and adults) have a big improvement when they understand it and implement it. It is a paradigmatic change. You go to school, you have fun and you learn. This is the real goal of modern education where all the information is provided and we need to help the new generation to learn to think. The methods that are present today are valid but they are old and designed for the world of their authors. The NTC is for nowadays and Dr. sc. Rajović is constantly updating it, starting from the best already present and optimizing it. I have a big number of teachers sending me testimonials of the change they experienced after the first NTC training, and they are willing more and more. When a whole community (for example Pazinski Novaki) volunteer to make a park in front of the school with the NTC principles you know there is something really valuable behind. I am very happy I met Dr. sc. Rajović and I have the honour to be part of the scientists who spread
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this knowledge. My will is that every parent and teacher get the chance to hear it because if you do so the result is that you are immediately interested, and once you experiment it on your child your will is to give it to everybody. Dr. sc. Rajović publishes a book in Italy and the dean of the Faculty of Science of Education of Bologna, prof. Luigi Guerra (one of the most important scientists in Italy in his field) has invited Dr. sc. Rajović to present his book and program and the materials in Bologna. He is enthusiastic about the Program. He is not the only one. Here I paste some extracts from the reviews of the book with its authors:
1. The book is one of the first try – if not the first – of the neurology in the field of the sciences of education with a practical function. It is relevant the will to propose different activities based on the developmental age, while not giving strictly defined phases. Prof. Claudio Desinan, full professor of Pedagogy, former dean of the Department of Science of Education of Trieste, Italy University 2. The book offers an approach based on an innovative didactical and educational approach for preschool children […]. Programs, like the one presented in this book, can increment the personal benefits of the child, and therefore make a huge utility from the social point of view. Prof. Fulvio Šuran, full professor, former dean of the Department of Science of Education of Pula University 3. Welcome to this precious book. It will open the road to an innovation of the didactical methodologies and will contribute the overcome the common prejudices! Dr. Federica Mormando, President of Eurotalent Italia, Vice-president of Eurotalent International and President of Humaningenium These three reviews are also recommendations written by top experts on the international scenario, two full professors and one of the most important people in Italy regarding the work (on-field) with gifted children. Personally, I do not know anyone in the world today that can make an impact of this kind and that has found the key for solving the main problem of modern time: our children grow with skills that are lower from generation to generation. 79
Vanja Ković, DPhil, associate professor, Laboratory for Neurocognition and Applied Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Belgrade Dear Sir/Madam, During my doctoral studies at the University of Oxford I once heard that excellence is hard to define but easy to recognize! The program that Ranko Rajović developed with his team is the reflection of excellence that deserves full attention and support. I was educated in the world’s leading centre for children’s cognitive and language development and I’ve heard numerous lectures how important early development is in order to set a good ground for a child to experience full benefits of future education. It was so obvious that people are aware of the problem and where we should be paying attention and investigate money in order to prevent future devastation of the educational system and various cognitive (memory, attention, language, and behavioural difficulties) as a consequence. But, it was also obvious that even the best institutions don’t have a solution to the problem. I have heard a lot about projects such as 10000 words etc., about stress causing pruning of the synapses, etc. But there are no solutions and no real, broad and efficient programs to find the way out of the circle which our children and we are stacked in. Soon after I came back to Serbia, I met Ranko Rajović and I was fascinated with his program and his ideas. Basically, he told me about his understanding that motor development leads to cognitive development and about the ways of improving that further through education. His whole program is followed children’s basic curiosity and desire to learn and find out. With his team, they developed the games for children enabling them to incorporate future knowledge later more easily. I wish I was a part of the Program when I was a child. Because, as adults, we can improve a little, but when we start on time, as children, we can improve a lot! Through this program, children can be better educated and happier in school than we had ever been. I teach the psychology of learning and I recognize how much basic learning principles are incorporated in the Program through the games and how much they follow but also lead children’s’ development.
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I had few occasions to attend some parts of the full-day programs when they educate teachers, but also in the workshops for kids and I was speechless about the ease and the beauty of learning. No wonder that the Program started spreading across the former Yugoslavia region, but then across Europe as well. And, there are no limits - knowledge is only the knowledge if it is shared in the mind of many. And, this program is open for everyone and so easy to implement. With my whole heart, I support and recommend a program developed by Ranko Rajović as a scientist and as a mother. Let’s give a chance to the best of us and make this world a better place for our future generations - let’s help them be better than we are.
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e r u t a r e t 12) Li Adesope, O. O., Lavin, T., Thompson, T., & Ungerleider, C. (2010). A systematic review and metaanalysis of the cognitive correlates of bilingualism. Review of Educational Research, 80(2), 207245. Aron, A. R., Poldrack, R. A., & Wise, S.P. (2009). Cognition: basal ganglia role. Encyclopedia of Neuroscience 2, 1069-1077. Bushnell, E.W., & Bodreau, P.J. (1993). Motor Development and the Mind: The potential Role of Motor Abilities as a Determinant of Aspects of Perceptual Development. Child Development, 64(4), 1005–1021. Chaddock, L., Erickson, K., Prakash, R., S., VanPatter.,M., Voss, M., V., M., Pontifex, M., Raine, L., Hillman, C., and Kramer, A. (2010). Basal ganglia volume is associated with aerobic fitness in preadolescent children. Dev Neurosci. 32 (3): 249-256. Chaddock, L., Hillman, C. H., Pontifex, M. B., Johnson, C. R., Raine, L. B., & Kramer, A. F. (2012). Childhood aerobic fitness predicts cognitive performance one year later. Journal of Sports Sciences, 30(5), 421-430. Chaddock-Heyman, L., Erickson, K. I., Holtrop, J. L., Voss, M. W., Pontifex, M. B., Raine, L. B., et al. (2016). Aerobic fitness is associated with greater white matter integrity in children. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 584 Christakis, D. A. (2009). The effects of infant media usage: what do we know and what should we learn?. Acta Paediatrica, 98(1), 8-16. Đedović, D., Rackov, J., & Stanojev, D. (2015): Walk to school as an integral part of daily physical activity from the perspective of cognitive abilities development. International Conference Identifying the Gifted and How to Work with Them in Pre-school Institutions and Primary Schools. Faculty of Education University of Ljubljana, 20-21 August 2015, 225-228.
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Used images: Personal archive of Dr. Ranko Rajović and Iva Rajović NTC Sistem učenja program archive www.pixabay.com freepik.com The back cover of this publication was designed with resources from Freepik.com