gave a talk to the teachers. The friendly and understanding attitude of Dr Holec made me
feel more confident of the way we were developing the project. He was very positive about
the way things were being done. We had been developing materials, mainly to support self-
directed learning. However, I want to remind the reader, all our assumptions were rather
hypothetical since the SAC had not been opened to students and it was not going to be
opened to them until four months later.
Six teachers from Oaxaca attended the course in Chiapas and I knew that some of the
ones that did not would have liked to have been there as well. That was a good sign; more
and more teachers were becoming interested in the project. During this course, Dr Holec
focused on pedagogical issues. I especially remember his remarks on the role and attitude of
the learners and the emphasis he gave to the learner's psychological and methodological
training. Dr Holec's presence and words made me even more assertive about the positive
results of the project. It could not have been any other way. They, in CRAPEL, knew about
autonomy and their outcome was successful. I did not see any reason why it would not work
in Mexico.
The fourth course was held in Nancy, France in October, 1993. It was not possible
for all the teachers involved in the project to go. Most of them would have liked to have
visited CRAPEL and see the way things were done there, however, only four of us went. I
was lucky that I had the opportunity to Ieam more about self-direction and see first hand the
way an approach to autonomy was put into practice.
Although there were some lectures and seminar sessions, what I recall to be the most
important event was the access to the library. Within the programme, there were scheduled
some hours to "browse" through the materials of the resource centre. We were free to make
decisions about the materials we wanted to work with. That was the best way to experience
learner autonomy!
Another important turning point was when we realised that CRAPEL was very
different from the SACs we were developing in Mexico. We were not discouraged though.
On the contrary, we thought that that was a good sign. At that time I wrote:
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