The Educational Theory of GIJUBHAI BADEKHA emphasizes on the child's need for an atmosphere of "Independence & Self-reliance".

'DIVASWAPNA' is the IMAGINARY STORY of a teacher who rejects the conventional methods of education. He remains enthusiastic towards the children & continues to experiment while continuously neglecting the traditional ways of teaching & prescribed textbooks. Gijubhai emphasized on the following methods of teaching:1. STORY TELLING- According to Gijubhai, story-telling is a wonderful magic pill which helps in establishing rapport between the pupils & the teachers. It also exposes them to literature & linguistic skills. He taught history with the help of story-telling. While story-telling being employed, he could bring about orderly behaviour among the students by devising a systematic programme for roll-call & sitting arrangement. 2. GAMES- Games are real education as great powers are born on the playground. A healthy body goes a long way in developing a healthy mind. Games also help in character-building through team spirit & cooperation. They also help in building a connection between the educator & the students. Gijubhai taught grammar by playing a game with cardboards & also geography by a game of 'Let us Travel' (imagined journeys) & a pack of playing cards. Moreover, he used word-building game i.e. scrabble as well as riddles & puzzles. 3. DICTATION METHOD- It is quite a highlight in Gijubhai's theories. He said that one should listen to the whole sentence carefully, watch the lip-sync, understand what is being said & then continue writing. This method saves the teacher from duplication of efforts. 4. IGNORE MISTAKES- The teacher should not point out mistakes of a child in front of everyone as it demotivates the child. Instead the teacher should encourage him for more PRACTICE so that he learns things gradually. Mistakes should be seen as AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT. The students who are quick in grasping things can always help the ones who take more time in understanding. 5. NO PUNISHMENTS- Negative reinforcements do not solve the purpose, rather they aggravate the problems. They make the pupils rude, harsh & disobedient towards the teachers. Students also abuse the teacher behind his back. Students will run away from the school & the teachers if they don't like them. Hence, punishments should be avoided so that the children respect & obey their mentors. 6. LIBRARY- Gijubhai encouraged story-book reading to pupils, in place of cramming textbooks. His main motive was child's learning, which could be achieved only if its interesting & the child is eager & enthusiastic to learn. Gijubhai also used travel books & encyclopedia while teaching geography. He advised usage of dictionaries & maps. 7. CLEANLINESS- Since lack of sanitation in schools is the breeding ground for disease, therefore, Gijubhai made sure that pupils are neatly dressed, personal hygiene is maintained & also cleanliness & order prevails in the classroom. He made the pupils clean the premises with brooms as dirtiness is the biggest problem in our country. 8. ANTAKADI & FOLK SONGS- Gijubhai taught poems by singing them with the help of folk songs & prayers. He also helped pupils learn various stanzas of different poems by playing the game of Antakadi (a game in which one person recites a stanza of a poem beginning with the last letter of the one recited by the other person). 9. DRAWING- Drawing is an important tool for self-expression. Gijubhai advised students to draw anything they feel like & whatever they can, even if they copy or trace it out. He used drawing to make the children aware of their natural surroundings. He also used telescope, binoculars, globe of the earth, paintings, picture albums & films showing scenes of a place.

Showing actual scenes of places, far away, enhances interest in geography. 10. INNER VALUES & DISCIPLINE- If new habits & values have to infused in the society, then it calls for repeated conscious efforts on the part of the teachers as well as students themselves. On the other hand, parents' cooperation is also a must for imbibing moral values & discipline amongst the children. 11. EVALUATION METHODS- Ranking system should be abolished, rather teachers should themselves be the examiners as they know, more than anyone else, the abilities of their pupils & reasons for their weak performance. They can best judge whether a pupil is fit for promotion or not. 12. PLAY ACTING ACTIVITIES- Role plays are dramatization of stories which helps in testing the acting skills, observation power, mannerisms, imagination & most importantly self-expression abilities of individuals. This method of teaching signifies true education or brings about real learning. Gijubhai believed that recitation & cramming is ugly, soul-killing & the most ineffective way of teaching. 13. NO RELIGIOUS EDUCATION- Gijubhai believed that there should be no preaching of religion to small children because it is an awakening which comes from within, only when there is a yearning for it. But they can be told stories from the Puranas, the Upanishads & textbooks by the teachers as well as parents. 14. NATURE STUDY- Gijubhai believed that learning should take place both in & outside the classrooms. The pupils get to learn more when exposed to the natural surroundings, as they observe & experience the things around them. He also taught his students the skill of climbing trees, although it requires a great deal of training. Learning with nature rouses pupils' interests & improves their level of creativity & imagination..

According to us, these methods can be applied well even in todays education scenario. E.g. Story Telling, Play way methods can be adopted easily in classrooms to make the topic more interesting. Extra curricular activities like Role Play and Drawing enhance the potential & learning capabilities of the child. It is believed even today that inculcating good habits like reading story books, cleanliness , imbibing moral values and discipline from early childhood contributes a lot in making a person better and responsible citizen of the country. Whereas abolishing punishments and wrong evaluation methods is becoming a conscious effort on part of the school as it has been proved that such things hamper the childs growth and kill the soul of the child.

Observations---1 After 2 days of observation in 4th standard, we all realized that each & every teacher adopts a different methodology while educating the students. The most common observation that we all came across was that most of the teachers were questioning the students during the revision process as the exams were approaching near. One of our observations in the English class brought into light a new way of discussing individual's work. The teacher called students one by one for the story-review & asked them to share their write-ups of the story, while other students had to give feedback on the same. The students had to point out the strengths & areas of improvement of the student, on the basis of description, language, vocabulary, events, evaluation & conclusion of the story. 2 Another observation which held our attention was that of an English quiz during the club period. The teacher divided the students into 3 teams & would call 1 student from a team at a time. She wrote words like bliss, scroll, tend, bunting etc.1 by 1 on the blackboard which could be seen by all, except the student being called. That student had to select one of her own team members who would describe the meaning of that word so that she can guess the word accurately. We also observed that the teachers used crossquestioning method so that the pupils listened to what their classmates were sharing. 3 Under another observation in maths class, one of our group members noticed that the teacher was revising a topic through worksheets and discussion of it was being done on the Smart board, the kids had a clarity in mind and individual attention was being given to the ones who had confusions relating to the concept. 4 We observed that in one of the life skills class, a student had been punished and sent outside the classroom for more than two hours, the teacher was conducting a quiz contest among the 4 rows...the excitement level rose in the class and she could not manage the students, so she stopped the game in between and asked the students to read their English chapters . Alternate possibility---If we would have been there, then we would have asked the students to lower their voices and discuss, if this would have not helped them then we would have made them lose a turn and deducted their points, this method could have surely helped in maintaining the decorum of the class. We would have never let the child to go out of the class and would have given some extra time in knowing the root cause of the problem and solving it because the child would have lost the revision done in the class. 5 In fourth class we observed that maths teacher was doing the worksheet of tic tic to make children understand the 12 hour and 24 hour time style concept. She tried to explain verbally but students could not understand and were asking questions again and again. Then she gave the example- check out when it is 12 midnight, mobile will show 00:00am. On that child replied Mam itni der tak kaun jaagega? But still instead of resolving the query she moved on . Alternate wayRather than ignoring the answer, she should have adjusted the time in her mobile and explained the students there and then. 6 In English class--the teacher was discussing worksheet, she was first asking from students and then writing the answers on blackboard and when she was not able to complete worksheet in the same period, she wrote all the answers on the blackboard without discussion. Alternate possibility was that she should have left the remaining questions for her next class. 7 Then in a free period class teacher played a game with students- asking one thing good about yourself and your friend and one thing you want to change in yourself and in your friend, Ball passed to one child, he replied " Mam I dont have any good thing about myself, I only have bad thing. Then teacher made him realize that he also had good thing in him and encouraged him to think and speak and finally it worked. She was also justifying the answers said by children. 8 In one of the observation PBL class was going on. The topic was Map making of the class from top view Students had been given plain sheets of paper & were asked to discuss one by one imagining - what all could be seen in the classroom from top view? Students responses were impressive. They were coming up with very minute details like from top view, tables would be seen as rectangles and legs will not be visible. One boy said along with other things well see hairs of students sitting in the class. Another pointed out instead of hair well see only black heads .Teacher appreciated the responses given by the children.

Points worth mentioning are --1. Students were not coping anyone elses answers. Everyone was using his own creative mind. 2. Students should have been clearly told the height of the top view. Because during conversation some discrepancies were cropping up as one time teacher remarked that suppose you are on 1516 floor. Later on she said suppose from 2nd or 3rd floor. So students were confused on that. 9 Another observation had been of a Maths teacher, who wanted to use Smart board for conducting revision worksheet. But ended up wasting good ten minutes as there was no mouse and keyboard in the class and she was not much aware of touch screen method .So she sent one boy to get the mouse and keyboard and she started with her work only when she got those. 10 One observation was in class-5. The students were asked to tell the steps of each activity conducted in PBL so far. Teacher was giving grades or stars to students individually. Each child was explaining turn wise. The activity was important but was being conducted in a boring style as the child was confronting the teacher only. Rest of the students were not even listening, were busy with themselves, some were with heads down too. Alternate wayStudents should have been called one by one in front, so that rest of the children could have an eye contact with him and could relate to what he was talking about. This would have caught the attention of the student in a better way. Also the student, who speaks in front, develops the self confidence & also learns to establish connection with the audience while speaking. This changes the learning atmosphere of the class.