Mary Hayden, Anthony Hemmens, Shona McIntosh, Andrés Sandoval-Hernández, Jeff Thompson—University of Bath
This study explored the impact on students, schools and communities of one component of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP): creativity, action, service (CAS). The study involved three groups of participants: current DP students, staff responsible for delivering or supporting CAS, and DP alumni. Perceptions of CAS, details of CAS activities and examples of good practice in schools were collected via online surveys. Survey responses were submitted from 7,973 students, 490 coordinators and 903 alumni from the Africa, Europe, Middle East (AEM) and Asia-Pacific (AP) regions. Coordinators, students and alumni believed that CAS helps students to become better at “taking on new challenges”, “learning to persevere” and “developing better interpersonal skills”. Moreover, students overwhelmingly viewed CAS as “challenging” but “worthwhile”. Two variables were found to be important for successful CAS implementation: students perceiving CAS as a valuable use of their time and goal setting before beginning CAS activities. Coordinators also suggested that a successful CAS programme depends on identifying CAS activities that students consider to be both meaningful and enjoyable.
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