Experiential Learning Cycle – TESOL Certificate Course

TESOL certification courses are offered right around the world to help those who have no knowledge of the English language gain a renowned certificate in the subject that can then help them pursue dreams and desires in advancing their careers either in their home countries or English speaking countries such as the UK and the USA.

Getting that certificate requires hard graft though and many hours of study both theory and practical, in order to pick-up a strong understanding of many aspects of the language. It’s not a course that you can simply achieve overnight, it takes time and dedication in order to bring the best out of you. However, with that said the results are worth the energy and time you will be putting in to such a course.

The Experiential Learning Cycle and its Four Stages

With every type of learning there is a learning cycle that you will inevitably deal with. With an experiential learning cycle you will come up against four main stages which are concrete experience, reflection, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation. Each of these stages will follow on from each other, looping in a circle.

You will start with concrete experience which then leads to reflection on that concrete experience, on a personal basis. From this you will come to the derivation of general rules that describe the concrete experience which we call abstract conceptualisation, finally moving around to the construction of ways of modifying the next experience that you have that resembles this one, in this forth stage we call is active experimentation.

All you need to remember is activist reflector, theorist and pragmatist and this will complete the four stage cycle.

TESOL Certificate course

Courses are offered using online and offline methods depending on your desired learning environment and of course you overall flexibly. Typically the online courses are cheaper in the long run because you don’t have the need to travel to campus every day, and you have no need to rent accommodation while you take your course. Online courses are simply done from the comfort of your own home when you have the time.

However, for many that don’t have 100% motivation and self-discipline the online courses can be more of a burden than a help. Putting off study or delaying certain work is much easier to do at home where the environment may not be classroom inspired and ultimately this could be your downfall.

If you do decide to try and achieve a TESOL certification then you need to reflect on what method is best suited to you, and only you will know this.

Once the course has been passed however, your salary and job expectations will increase.

Lesson planning sessions

Lesson planning sessions are our final topic of conversation in this article, and like every course you must have a certain element of organization skills to get the best from yourself and the courses. Lesson planning sessions can include goal creations which enable you to work towards specific set targets in a certain period of time. Or they may look at certain activities that can be used in classroom or online based environments to bring out the best in students, from communication, reading and listening exercises that can help them advance in TESOL.