If yes, then wait for a few days till teachers return to the classroom with a bagful of surprises and additional knowledge, which will prompt children to raise queries on various issues and improve their overall perception of things.

However, to begin with, the benefit will be confined to only those children, whose school was represented by teachers at a workshop on `Implementing the Project Approach in Indian classroom' which began here at the Chetan Balwadi on Tuesday.

Organised jointly by the Early Child Development-Learning Resource Centre and Chetan Balwadi Laboratory Nursery School of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) of the M S University, the workshop is aimed at developing mental faculties of the children.

Thirty-five pre-primary and primary (up to class IV) teachers from Vadodara, Anand, Kaalol and Surat are taking part.

Talking to Express Newsline, Prof Prerna Mohite, head of HDFS, said in the prevalent system though children are taken out for field visits, they are not curious to ask questions and even in classrooms, it is mostly spoon-feeding.

According to Jigisha Shastri, a lecturer in the Home Science Faculty, while on the first day the participants selected topics like hotels, restaurants, gardens, theatre, hospitals and schools, on Wednesday they would take up field visits to these places to get details and on the concluding day prepare a report and make presentations.

Once, back in the schools, they would take students on the field visits.

Superintendent of the Balwadi Hina Mankodi said, unlike in the project method where teachers help students prepare projects, in the current system they would only be facilitators and students would prepare projects themselves. The Balwadi is already using such a system for the last two and a half years, she added. Kavita Thakkar of the Akshar Centre for the Hearing Impaired said the knowledge the teachers have gained here would enable them to stimulate the students in better manner.

While another teacher Pabitra Dasgupta, representing Ashoka Hall, said the method would help children co-operate with others, Kamal Mangal of Ahmedabad-based Anand Nikentan said he planned to implement the method even in classes above std IV. Professor Mohite said based on the success of this workshop they would organise similar such programmes. Currently, they plan to call teachers after a few months to get the feedback.