The CREATE Method: Participatory
Literacy for Adult Learners
Christina
Lynn Chen
The CREATE method is a synthesis of many ideas and methods in community
development, literacy, and adult education. Building on the REFLECT approach as well as
ideas from Freire, Mezirow, Vella, Knowles, Malone, and others, CREATE makes
use of proven dialogue-starters, including Chambers’ Participatory Rural
Appraisal, to present literacy as a desirable, useful, and attainable skill for
the average adult in developing countries.
The CREATE method is specifically designed for adults who find traditional, school-like approaches
to literacy to be irrelevant to their lives and for those who perceive no
potential or compelling benefits to their lives from literacy.
CREATE is an acronym describing
the process facilitators and participants work through in each lesson and
throughout the literacy program. Through
the CREATE process, facilitators and participants:
Construct a graphic,
Reflect on its implications,
Examine their options,
Articulate their discoveries,
Take action, and
Enhance their community.
CREATE units are centered around the felt needs of the community, resulting in strong
interest in the program and continuing motivation throughout it. Woven throughout this process are literacy
activities, demonstrating and modeling relevant functions of literacy and ways
that literacy can benefit the life of the individual as well as the community
as a whole. Basic skills are taught
through these functions of literacy, rather than as separate activities that
could be perceived by the learners as irrelevant or unimportant.
Included are instructions for developing a facilitator’s
manual, descriptions of each of the nine steps involved in the method, sample
lessons in English, and discussions of materials development and facilitator
training.
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Chen,, C. L. (2005, September). The CREATE method: Participatory
literacy for adult learners. Paper presented at 1st
International Seminar on Literacy Education in Developing Countries,
Website: www.geocities.com/eltindonesia
Email: eltindonesia@yahoo.com