CAS Guide

Responsibilities of the Student

Students are required to:

• Self-review at the beginning of their CAS experience and set personal goals for what they hope to achieve through their CAS programme

• plan, do and reflect (plan activities, carry them out and reflect on what they have learned)

• undertake at least one interim review and a final review with their CAS adviser

• take part in a range of activities, including at least one project, some of which they have initiated themselves

• keep records of their activities and achievements, including a list of the principal activities undertaken

• show evidence of achievement of the eight CAS learning outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes are differentiated from assessment objectives because they are not rated on a scale. The completion decision for the school in relation to each student is, simply, “Have these outcomes been achieved?”

As a result of their CAS experience as a whole, including their reflections, there should be evidence that students have:

• increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth

They are able to see themselves as individuals with various skills and abilities, some more developed than others, and understand that they can make choices about how they wish to move forward.

• undertaken new challenges

A new challenge may be an unfamiliar activity, or an extension to an existing one.

• planned and initiated activities

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.

• worked collaboratively with others

Collaboration can be shown in many different activities, such as team sports, playing music in a band, or helping in a kindergarten. At least one project, involving collaboration and the integration of at least two of creativity, action and service, is required.

• shown perseverance and commitment in their activities

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.

• engaged with issues of global importance

Students may be involved in international projects but there are many global issues that can be acted upon locally or nationally (for example, environmental concerns, caring for the elderly).

• considered the ethical implications of their actions

Ethical decisions arise in almost any CAS activity (for example, on the sports field, in musical composition, in relationships with others involved in service activities). Evidence of thinking about ethical issues can be shown in various ways, including journal entries and conversations with CAS advisers.

• developed new skills

As with new challenges, new skills may be shown in activities that the student has not previously undertaken, or in increased expertise in an established area.

All eight outcomes must be present for a student to complete the CAS requirement. Some may be demonstrated many times, in a variety of activities, but completion requires only that there is some evidence for every outcome.

This focus on learning outcomes emphasizes that it is the quality of a CAS activity (its contribution to the student’s development) that is of most importance. The guideline for the minimum amount of CAS activity is approximately the equivalent of half a day per school week (three to four hours per week), or approximately 150 hours in total, with a reasonable balance between creativity, action and service. “Hour counting”, however, is not encouraged.

Reflection

Reflection needs to be developed. It should not be assumed that it comes naturally. Just as the kind of reflection that a critic applies to a work of art or literature is something that develops with time and experience, so the kind of reflection appropriate in CAS is something that requires guidance and practice.

The fundamentals are simple. Of any activity, it is appropriate to ask the following questions.

• What did I plan to do?
• What did I do?
• What were the outcomes, for me, the team I was working with, and others?

The difficulty lies in the complexity of the possible answers.

Kinds of reflection

Different kinds of reflection work for different people. Reflection can be:

• public or private
• individual or shared
• objective or subjective.

For example, in a CAS group project, the planning stages are largely public, so reflection on them can be largely public, shared and objective. The term “largely” is used because there may be individual views that arise independently, in terms of how satisfactory the process was for a particular student (who may enter and leave the activity with different personal experiences from others).

Carrying out the project is likely to be both public and private, both individual and shared, and both objective and subjective.

Outcomes of a project or other activity are similar: there may be objective successes and limitations of the activity as a whole, but what it has meant for the team and for individuals within it may be more varied.

For some students and some kinds of reflection (such as private, individual, subjective), writing is the best tool for reflection. However, for many, reflective writing does not come naturally. It can, to some extent, be “modeled” in oral discussion of more public, less sensitive matters, either as an end in itself or as a prelude to writing.

But writing is by no means the only possible outcome of reflection. Students can present their activities orally to peers, parents or outsiders. They can make scrapbooks, photo essays, videos/DVDs or weblogs. They can use journals or make up varied portfolios. Or they may sometimes simply reflect privately: some of the most important lessons may be very personal ones that students should be allowed to keep to themselves.

Developing reflection

Moving on from the “What …?” questions outlined earlier, experiential learners might consider, where appropriate, for themselves and others, and for each stage of an activity (before, during and after):

• how they felt
• what they perceived
• what they thought about the activity
• what the activity meant to them
• what the value of the activity was
• what they learned from the activity and how this learning (for example, a change of perspective) might apply more widely.

Recording and reporting

Students should document their CAS activities, noting in particular their reflections upon their experiences. As previously indicated, this documentation may take many forms, including weblogs, illustrated displays and videos, and written notes. Its extent should match the significance of the particular activity to the student. While it is important to encourage students to make an early start on their CAS log, there is no point in writing lengthy accounts about relatively routine experiences.

Some of the most valuable recording and reporting happens when there is a real audience and purpose, for example, when students inform other students, parents or the wider community about what is planned or what has been achieved.

There should be consultations between each student and a CAS adviser as necessary, at least twice in year 1 and once in year 2, where the student’s progress is discussed and appropriate encouragement and advice is given. These consultations should be briefly documented on a simple CAS progress form. If any concerns arise, especially about whether a student will successfully complete the CAS requirement, these should be noted and appropriate action should be taken at the earliest opportunity.

The school will record the completion decision for each student, noting the evidence for each learning outcome. This decision is reported to the regional office, as specified in the Handbook of procedures for the Diploma Programme.

Where a school is required to submit sample student CAS records to the regional office, as part of the regular monitoring process, the records required will be:

• the progress form
• the completion form
• up to 10 sample pages from the student’s ongoing documentation. These sample pages, which may, for example, be photocopied journal pages or printouts from electronic logs, must include a list of the principal activities undertaken and evidence of both planning and reflection. For one or more activities, it must be possible for the reader to tell what happened, why it happened, how it happened, what its value was and what the student learned from it.

The relevant section of the IB Programme standards and practices document states that students should have opportunities to choose their own CAS activities and to undertake activities in a local and international context as appropriate. This means that, as far as possible, students should “own” their personal CAS programmes. With guidance from their mentors/ advisers, students should choose activities for themselves, initiating new ones where appropriate.