About the Author
Jasna Cvetković Lay, PhD, Psychologist,
ECHA Specialist in Gifted Education
Jasna C.Lay with dr.David George, founder and president of NACE, in British Council in Zagreb
on professional seminar "The Challenge of the Able Child" held on 22 -23.September 2005.
With dr. Joseph Renzulli (https://renzullilearning.com/en/Articles/Content/153-Dr-Joseph-Renzulli) on International conference Excellence & Inovation in Basic-Higher Education & Psychology, 2016., Rijeka
She is a graduate psychologist, doctor of educational sciences and ECHA Specialist in Gifted Education with 30 years of work experience at all levels of the educational system and the founder of the „Bistrić“ association. She acquired professional knowledge in the field of gifted education in Great Britain, the Netherlands and Israel. She received her doctorate at the Faculty of Pedagogy of the University of Ljubljana https://www.pef.uni-lj.si/ based on the tuition fee of the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Slovenia. Her area of specialty is early identification and educational support for gifted children of preschool and early school age in institutional and non-institutional contexts. She worked as the coordinator of the Professional Development Center for encouraging domain-specific giftedness in kindergarten Iskrica in Zagreb, the first of its kind in Croatia (http://www.vrtic-iskrica.zagreb.hr/default.aspx?id=96). She continuously conducts in-service teacher trainings for educators, teachers and professional associates in the field of identification and support for gifted children and primary school students. As an invited expert, she participated in teacher education in projects of the European Social Fund and in the IPA project of ETTA Improving the quality of the system of professional development of educational workers. She is a member of professional working groups at the Ministry of Science and Education for the development of the important national documents: Framework for encouraging learning experiences and evaluating the achievements of gifted students (2016), the National Plan and the Action Plan for the development of the education system for the period from 2021. to 2027., Guidelines for working with gifted children and students (2022) (https://mzom.gov.hr/UserDocsImages/dokumenti/Publikacije/Smjernice-za-rad-s-darovitom-djecom-i-ucenicima.pdf). She is author and co-author of 6 manuals, 5 brochures, 3 scientific and 43 professional papers. Croatian Psychological Association has assigned her annual psychological award Marko Marulić in 2003. for remarkably valuable contribution in applied psychology. From 2005. she lectured the Gifted Education course for students of psychology on University of Zagreb.
Expert knowledge in the field of Gifted Education she acquired in Great Britain and Netherlands. In Great Britain she finished in service teacher training held by experts and visited institutions such as National Associations for Gifted Children (https://nagc.org/), National Associations for Curriculum Enrichment, Bromley Developmental and Teacher Training Center (https://www.bscteach.co.uk/), Newton's Prep School (https://www.newtonprepschool.co.uk/), Windmill School, Middlesex University (https://www.mdx.ac.uk/), Reading University of Reading etc. Her education was financially supported by British Council Croatia in Zagreb (https://www.britishcouncil.hr/) . In the Center for the Study of Giftedness, University of Nijmegen (https://talentcentrebudapest.eu/sites/default/files/njmegen.pdf) in 2000. she finished European postgraduate program and become Specialist in Gifted Education.
She has published several works and gave reports at professional conferences in Croatia and abroad including the ECHA (European Council for High Ability) conference in Wiena (1966, Debrecin (2000) and Rhodes (2002).
The biography of the author is available here