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International perspectives from personal experiences – how does that work?
Shona McIntosh explores the impact on learners of the IB Diploma’s CAS programme
Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) is different from the rest of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP). It requires students to be creative, to be physically active and to engage in service or volunteering activities. In addition, students complete a project which combines two or more CAS strands. CAS, as part of the DP core which also includes Theory of Knowledge and the Extended Essay, ‘plays a central role’ (IB, 2009: 7) in fulfilling the DP’s aim of ‘developing internationally minded young people’ (ibid., p4). But how do students’ personal experiences of CAS activities help them develop the international perspectives which are fundamental to international mindedness? Evidence from recent academic research provides some examples which can address this question.
A team of researchers at the University of Bath’s Department of Education were commissioned by the IB to study the impact of CAS (Hayden et al, 2017). Part of the research used online surveys to establish what activities students undertake to fulfil the CAS requirements (see the word cloud included here) and to report perceptions of its benefits and challenges. Amongst the respondents were almost 8,000 students, largely in the final year of the DP. They came from 89 IB World Schools, located in IB world regions Asia-Pacific (AP) and Africa-Europe-Middle East (AEM). Responses showed strong agreement amongst students that CAS contributes to the development of those attributes for learning enshrined in the IB Learner Profile and those outcomes for which the CAS programme aims, as well as to the development of individual skills such as communication and leadership.
However, the connection between individual skills acquisition and developing international mindedness is not immediately clear. Some school-based CAS activities, such as Model United Nations, may encourage a global outlook but many common CAS activities – such as performance in school plays or with the school orchestra, playing for school sports teams, and helping teachers at school events – take place at a decidedly local level. This prompted a consideration of how CAS activities might contribute more intentionally to students’ development of international perspectives.
There was evidence in our study that some CAS activities are designed to intentionally foster the development of an international outlook in IB Diploma students. Examples were not limited to one particular strand of CAS. For Creativity, for instance, one school’s Crochet Club made scarves to send to refugees. For Activity, beach clean-ups and mangrove planting combined physical exertion with global environmental concerns. Through Service, international perspectives were cultivated when students’ activities were linked to worldwide organisations, such as the Red Cross or Amnesty International, or by supporting local organisations tackling issues of global significance, such as homelessness, care of the elderly or animal welfare.
The CAS project offers students the chance to develop a sustained response to an international issue. Sometimes this is organised through CAS trips; students return with memorable experiences, having met people – perhaps living in rural or impoverished conditions – they would never otherwise have encountered. However, it should be asked whether memorable experiences are enough, in themselves, to transform students’ personal experiences into international mindedness. Although experience has the potential to lead to learning (Hayden and McIntosh, 2018), the quality of follow-up reflections is a key part of turning any experience into something from which students can learn (Cannings et al, 2015). Our study also made clear that students need to perceive CAS activities as meaningful.
An explicit intention to connect with international issues through CAS experiences has the potential to link the
personal with the global in ways that are meaningful to students. For example, one group’s CAS project designed a website to publicise the stories of people they had met who lived on the street in their own city. Students’ awareness of the global issue of population growth and associated problems of inequality, poverty, and limited opportunity to access clean water and education gained immediacy through the impact on the lives of their city neighbours. Not only were these students’ CAS experiences linked to a global issue but, in using the internet, they capitalised on the opportunity to connect with a global audience.
CAS has the potential to do more than create great memories or develop individuals’ skill sets. Joint engagement between students, when encouraged to undertake meaningful CAS activities, and schools, who work with them to identify connections with the world beyond the school gates, may afford an international perspective from which international mindedness can develop.
References
Cannings J, Piaggio M I, Muir P and Brodie T (2015) Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) for the IB Diploma: an essential guide for students. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Hayden M, Hemmens A, McIntosh S, Sandoval-Hernandez A and Thompson J J (2017) The Impact of Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) on Students and Communities. Available via ibo.org/contentassets/ d1c0accb5b804676ae9e782b78c8bc1c/cas-finalreport-2017-en.pdf Hayden M and McIntosh S (2018) International Education: the transformative potential of experiential learning. Oxford Review of Education, DOI: 10.1080/03054985.2017.1402757 International Baccalaureate (2009) The Diploma Programme: from principles into practice. Available via www.ibchem.com/root_pdf/ Principles.pdf
