Participatory Communication in Nonformal Education. Technical Note No. 17.

Basically a means by which a group of people can come together and share their experiences of a common set of events, this processing technique provides a mechanism that can be used for various purposes, including information sharing, informal assessment of ongoing projects, overcoming language problems, and staff development. Among those programs and settings in which the processing technique has been used successfully are a community action for rodent control in Troy, New York; an inservice training program for field workers in a nonformal educational program in Indonesia; a project to coordinate nonformal educational activities among seven provinces in Indonesia; and a series of weekly meetings of faculty and graduate students at the Center for International Education in Amherst, Massachusetts. Experience indicates that the sessions should be held on a regular basis. Furthermore, they should focus on a few simple questions. While the rules for processing sessions should be set by needs of the group, a few simple rules pertaining to the role of the group leader, limits on answer times, and the scope of discussions must be observed. (MN)