Service Learning activities

Supporting a flexible process with the learning outcomes

Start with the learning outcomes. Some of the learning outcomes are more prominent than others and get visited far more in service learning - this is fine. Just make sure that students visit a learning outcome at least once in the whole course. This doesn't usually present a problem when schools connect the dots with other elements of the CP course. You do not have to shoe horn the learning outcomes in to every service learning experience - they really are there to be accessed explicitly when relevant so students carry out service and learn effectively at the same time.

Using the Learning Outcomes for the first time

Make the learning outcomes accessible for everyone 

When introducing the students to the learning outcomes for service learning  it is important to make them easily understandable, supported with an example and take time to explore the questions they have that emerge from each stage. It's important not to be diverted by the word 'outcome' as just a summative assessment characteristic; outcomes are very much to be built and reflected upon through the whole two year course. After all, students may well have a variety of service learning experiences throughout their course and not just one long project.

LO 1 'Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth'
Key question: Who am I?

Students appreciate that they have existing strengths and skills that make them unique as well as areas that are less developed. Explicit understanding of this builds self awareness and an appreciation that we are not finished products but constant works in progress as lifelong learners.


Tips for developing understanding

If your school has separate roles for the core elements, do discuss with the PPS coordinator how students explore this question in their PPS work Also, do use the learner profile to support this learning outcome throughout the whole process as an explicit and useful reference point. Make timely and relevant connections. 

Transferable skills? Is this being taught elsewhere? Check out PPS theme ...

Personal Development

The personal development of the student is clearly paramount in the CP. This page introduces the theme for students to find their motivation, vision and 'buy-in' they need for their CP course and life...

LO 2 'Demonstrate participation with service learning experiences'
Key phrase: Get involved
There are many ways that students can demonstrate their participation with service learning experiences, especially when they are explicitly utilising the five key stages. By using the investigation, preparation, planning, reflection, demonstration process students will demonstrate participation from conception or intiation of involvement in a project to execution and collaborating with others in the process. And remember that this is a process where you can build from one experience to the next and show commitment to action.

Tips for developing understanding

At the start it is important not to put off students who may be feeling hesitant and nervous about the participation element of the service learning elements. Reflecting on experiences they have already been part of in a positive way can also reassure that this is not as big a mountain to climb as they might have expected. Also, when discussing examples, do look at a wide variety so the students do not get the impression that service learning has to look like one thing in particular. Most of all, take your time building skills that enable students to be able to participate confidently.

Transferable skills? Is this being taught elsewhere? Check out ATL and reflective project skill ...

Planning and process management

The student's planning skills, throughout the reflective project experience, must not to be overlooked. This ensures that the process does not just become about the final piece but is seen as an opportunity...

LO3 'Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively'
Key phrase: Work together
Working collaboratively as a team can be an experience of highs and lows with both elements being a crucial part of the 'learning' in 'service learning. At the heart of the IB educational philosophy is the belief that we build knowledge and understanding through collaboration and the key here is to be able to reflect honestly about what went well and not so well.

Tips for developing understanding

Be prepared to discuss the pitfalls of working as a group and what makes for frustrating and unrewarding learning experiences. Using examples from outside of the classroom and school community of where teamwork worked and did not work can generate good discussion as students can find it easier to talk objectively about experiences outside of the school context.

Transferable skills? Is this being taught elsewhere? Check out the Personal development area of the PPS resources ...

Exercises in Empathy

Understanding empathy can be tricky - least of all differentiating it from sympathy. Through the work of neuro psychologists and academics, we explore its definition and real world application. Students...

LO 4 'Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance'
Key question: How does the local link to the global?
In IB educational philosophy, learning takes place in local and global contexts. In service learning students use problem-solving skills to respond actively and sensitively to issues on a local, national and international level. True engagement is when students can see the link between local and global issues and why what they are doing in their school community really matters.

Tips for developing understanding

Students will be exploring global issues throughout their CP course whether it is in their DP subjects, career-related studies and other core elements. This is a good opportunity to explore the global issues they have been exploring in their career-related studies in particular and how these are apparent or not apparent in the local community. Also considering the UN Sustainable Development Goals and considering the local link can help develop an understanding about the impact of linking the local and the global together. Do link up with the PPS course and how students are developing debating skills as they explore ethical dilemmas from around the world. This links very much to the last learning outcome too!

Transferable skills? Is this being taught elsewhere? Check out PPS theme of Intercultural Understanding ...

Intercultural Understanding

Students explore the significance of cultural identity and diversity as the ability to understand and appreciate multiple cultural perspectives leads to highly effective and empathetic people within personal...

LO 5 'Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions'
Key question: Am I doing the right thing?With responsible action comes a need for an ethical compass. When participating in service learning, the appropriateness of choices and actions will need to be considered through every step of the process.

Tips for developing understanding

Again this is a key opportunity to make links with PPS in the earlier stages of the CP course as often schools will explore ethics as an early module. This is to help students to start preparations for their reflective project where they will consider an ethical dilemma connected to their career-related subject.  Students do respond to frameworks to help them consider ethical choices as the topic of ethics can be overwhelming in its entirety. Bring it back to questions about people, actions and consequences to make it accessible.

Transferable skills? Is this being taught elsewhere? Check out the reflective project and PPS resources based upon the central themes of Applied Ethics, ethical issues and ethical dilemmas 

Applied Ethics

The IB learner profile characteristic of 'principled' requires students to develop responsibility not only for their actions but the consequences as well. Applied Ethics is most immediately associated...

Ethical dimensions, issues and dilemmas.

Finding a suitable ethical issue and dilemma to analyse critically is at the centre of the reflective project process. However a student also needs to be able to understand the ethical ramifications of...

Ethical Thinking

At the heart of ethical thinking is the ability to consider the dynamics of people, actions and consequences in a balanced way. Developing ethical thinking is a complex process that takes time not just...

Starting discussions and debates

A key way to develop confidence in personal and professional skills and foster curiosity is through continuous debate and discussion about the world around us. A PPS teacher's main hurdle is keeping resources...

Transferable skills

Joining the dots of the CP

The exploration above with the suggestion of resources, takes you through the learning outcomes of service learning. However another layer to add into the learning experience for students is to recognise where skills are transferring through the process of investigation, preparation, planning, reflection and demonstration and how they are developing these in other areas of the course. Which they are doing hugely! This can be one of the trickiest areas to develop as a teacher and also for students to realise the value in. A lot of the time teachers are just not aware about what else is happening in terms of skill development in other areas of the course. Here are some suggestions for activities to try in Service Learning but also ideas and links fromacross the PPS and Reflective project resources that support and open up different perspectives on the key stages of service learning. If you can link what the students are doing with what they are doing elsewhere as much as possible, then their experience will be the richer for it and also your work will become easier.

Investigation
What is going on in my local area?

It can be hard to know where to start with service learning. Just how much do we know about what goes on in our community? And what community are we talking about in the first place. Start out by considering what existing projects are happening within the school community and interview current IB2 students about what they have done for service learning so far at school. Then ...


Explore the local newspapers online

Research and record projects, charities and initiatives currently taking place. Cross reference these with any projects that have already been carried out at school. Record your findings visually in your service learning journal.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals

Take time to explore the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Focus in on a couple that catch your eye. How do they link with your DP subjects? Career-related subject/s? Ethical issues you have explored in PPS? Ethical issues in your career-related subject/s? Create a diagram to record your ideas and findings.

Research skills

An open-minded and adaptable approach to researchStudents developing research skills early on can help them quickly ascertain whether their intended research question and area will work; there are many...

Planning
Am I meeting an authentic need of the community or my own needs? 

In the research stage of service learning you have the opportunity to learn far more about your local community and indeed what we mean by community itself; where have you been drawn to? The school community? Or outside of the school community? It might well be that your school builds experiences with you that start in the school community before building out to different projects in the local community. It may well be that your service learning experience remains in the school community entirely.There are lots of different approaches.

In the research process, you may well have narrowed down on one specific idea. What is crucial in this - the planning - stage is that you narrow down what the authentic need of the community is and not put your own needs first.

Interview stakeholders

Identify who are the key people involved in your intended service learning experience. Ascertain what the service learning need is. What would be their ideal outcome? What would be your ideal outcome?

Design your project backwards

Planning and process management

The student's planning skills, throughout the reflective project experience, must not to be overlooked. This ensures that the process does not just become about the final piece but is seen as an opportunity...

Action
Responding to new situations and setbacks

 Taking action can seem daunting. Especially knowing how and when to start; it can feel nerve-wracking wanting to get
 it right. By following the above stages, students have prepared ahead and know that they have identified a viable and 
 valuable project. However it is good to have a thinking routine to help make decisions about what action to take whilst
 the project is happening. Again this involves considering the needs of others and clarity of communication. Below is
 the link for the Effective Communication page to help students develop confidence in how they communicate with a variety of stakeholders.

The following thinking routine helps find paths for action when in the midst of the situation as after the novelty of starting a project has worn off, it is easy to find that the project might not be moving along as well as you hoped or you can't quite put your finger on why it is not working.

An adapted thinking routine for exploring projects and finding paths for action [1]

As you start on your service learning project, and familiarise yourself with it, ask yourself:

What are the parts and the people involved in the project I am working in? Visualise, draw, write this down ...

How do the people in this project interact with each other and other parts of the project?

What are the elements/aspects of this project that are blocking change or it developing well?

What are the elements or aspects of this project that could be opened for change and I might not have thought of before?

How might this sort of change affect the project and people involved in it?
 

Effective Communication

Being an effective communicator is a key capability for the workplaces of the future. This page introduces this theme and demonstrates different directions it can be taken in. New for Autumn 2020 are...

Reflection
The Three Whys

This routine is adapted from a Harvard Project Zero thinking routine to be used at any given stage of the service learning process. At its heart are three questions designed to make students consider the significance of what they are doing right now before then considering where their project is going. It is a good routine for encouraging evaluative critical thinking as students are asked to consider the 'so what?' of the work they have been doing, take a step back and see the big picture. Useful for the reflective project or any discipline that demands analysis and then evaluation (ie. all?)

1. Why does this issue/project/development matter to me?
2. Why might it matter to the people around me (family, friends, city, nation)
3. Why might it matter to the world?

Reflective Thinking

Reflection is generally seen as an exercise in looking back on what has been done. The part that is missed out is to use this knowledge to shape what can be done in the future. This is how reflection...

Demonstration
 Assessing Community impact

At the demonstration stage of the service learning project, it can be difficult to work out how to demonstrate the impact of the project completed or, indeed, which particular area to focus on. We want service learning students to respond actively and sensitively to issues on a local, national and international level. We want them to truly engage and see the link between local and global issues and why what they are doing in their school community really matters. Start off this area by considering a short exercise where students are given little time to overthink their responses and therefore can identify the real meaning of impact in their project. Below this is a link to the Empathy page with lots of ideas to help students develop empathic skills which can support their service learning experience too.

Elevator Pitch

Without preparing too much what you are going to say, share your story in 60 seconds starting with the sentence 'Service learning projects create impact by ...
Share the why you carried out your service learning, how you created impact and what the lasting impact might be.

Putting yourself on the spot like this, what did you discover? Did it give you some clues as to how you might demonstrate your contribution? Has anything else come to mind since sharing this?

Exercises in Empathy

Understanding empathy can be tricky - least of all differentiating it from sympathy. Through the work of neuro psychologists and academics, we explore its definition and real world application. Students...

Footnotes

  1. ^ https://reimaginingmigration.org/thinking-routine-people-systems-and-wedges/
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