Service as action is a key component to the Middle Years Programme: "IB learners strive to be caring members of the community who demonstrate a personal commitment to service, and act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment. IB World Schools value service with others as an important way to engage in principled action across a range of overlapping local and global communities" (FPIP 2017).  Service learning is the way students can see the meaning of what they learn in the classroom by applying the skills, concepts, and knowledge they have learned in an authentic context, as well as developing their IB learner profile traits. 

Service-As-Action Learner Outcomes

• become more aware of their own strengths and areas for growth 

• undertake challenges that develop new skills 

• discuss, evaluate, and plan student-initiated activities 

• persevere in action

• work collaboratively with others 

• develop international-mindedness through global engagement, multilingualism, and intercultural understanding 

• consider the ethical implications of their actions

​These outcomes are closely related to the IB learner profile traits and ATL skill indicators that students are developing in our classes. They are evident through student reflection prior to, during, and after their service learning activity.  It is our responsibility as teachers and a school to plan opportunities for student involvement with the community, both outside of the classroom hours and as meaningful application tied to our curriculum, on both a local and global scale.  This means that most of the Service-as-action opportunities should be embedded into the classroom curriculum.

CAS is one of the three essential elements that every student must complete as part of the Diploma Programme (DP).

The three strands of CAS, which are often interwoven with particular activities, are characterized as follows:

• Creativity – arts, and other experiences that involve creative thinking.

• Activity – physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle, complementing academic work elsewhere in the DP.

• Service – an unpaid and voluntary exchange that has a learning benefit for the student. The rights, dignity and autonomy of all those involved are respected.

In order to demonstrate these concepts, students are required to undertake a CAS project. The project challenges students to:

• show initiative

• demonstrate perseverance

• develop skills such as collaboration, problem solving and decision making.

CAS enables students to enhance their personal and interpersonal development by learning through experience.

It provides opportunities for self-determination and collaboration with others, fostering a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment from their work.

At the same time, CAS is an important counterbalance to the academic pressures of the DP.

CAS Learner Outcomes 

1. Identify personal strengths and develop areas for growth.

You are able to see yourself as an individual with various skills and abilities, some more developed than others, and understand that you can make choices about how you wish to move forward based on your understanding of your own capabilities.

2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

A new challenge may be an unfamiliar activity, or an extension to an existing one.  The challenge needs to be a substantial one. As with new challenges, new skills may be shown in activities that you have not previously undertaken, or in increased expertise in an established area. The skills developed need to be useful and substantial.

3. Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

Planning and initiation will often be in collaboration with others. It can be shown in activities that are part of larger projects, for example, ongoing school activities in the local community, as well as in small student-led activities.

4. Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

At a minimum, this implies attending regularly and accepting a share of the responsibility for dealing with problems that arise in the course of activities. Early withdrawal from activities works against this learning outcome and should be avoided.

5. Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.

Collaboration can be shown in many different activities, such as team sports, playing music in a band, or helping in a community group. Students must collaborate and undertake a CAS project of at least one month’s duration in one, two or three areas of CAS.

6. Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.

You may be involved in acting upon any global issue that exists in the local community (issues include poverty, pollution, caring for the elderly, food and water access/use, education for all etc). You may also be involved in international projects either with indirect local action or traveling to be involved directly on location.

7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.

What is right and wrong? What are the consequences of decisions you make? Ethical decisions arise in almost any CAS activity (for example, on the sports field, in developing a stage production, in relationships with others involved in service activities). You need to show evidence of your thinking about ethical issues through your reflections and in discussions with your CAS Adviser or CAS Coordinator.

Service learning is the development and application of knowledge and skills towards meeting an identified and authentic community need.

In this research-based approach, students often undertake service initiatives related to topics studied previously in their academic disciplines, utilizing skills, understandings and values developed in these studies.

4 Types of Service

1. Direct Service: Students engage directly with the people, environment, or animals.

2. Indirect Service: Though students do not see the recipients, they have verified their actions benefit the community or environment.

3. Advocacy: Students speak on behalf of an issue of public interest in order to promote awareness or understanding through dispersal of of accurate information that may lead to others taking action.

4. Research: Students collect information from various sources, analyze data and report on a topic of importance to influence policy or practice

   
   

5 Stages of Service Learning

1. Investigation: Students analyze a selected issue to ascertain a community need as well as explicitly identify their own areas for personal growth.

2. Preparation: Students spend appropriate time acquiring knowledge and skills to help them understand the real needs of the community rather than prioritizing their own.

3. Actions: Students implement their plan either through direct service, indirect service, advocacy, or research or a combination of a number of service types.

4. Reflection: Reflection takes place frequently with students considering themselves in relation to personal, local, and global contexts.

5. Demonstration: Throughout this process, students are explicit in the how, what, and why of their learning and identify their accomplishments through formal or informal sharing of their experiences through their learning portfolio.