Service learning IRL

What does Service Learning look like in reality?
Arguably the biggest selling point of the CP is its flexibility and every school globally creates a programme suited to their context; there is not a one size fits all approach. When it comes to developing Service Learning, who knows the opportunities that lie in the local and global community for students? We cannot dictate the projects they create. Best to see examples of how Service Learning is done around the world and what fellow practitioners have learnt from their experiences. Read on for top tips for Service Learning success.
Context? Multi programme DP school in the first year of the CP with a priority to design a core where 'each element supports and feeds into the others'
Is service learning timetabled? Yes, in the first term, students use timetabled service learning lessons for the research stage and to identify local ethical issue and needs. Research is built in throughout the two year course with a '360' feedback loop with community partners.
Examples of projects?
Local ethical need identified | Response to local need |
Childhood literacy in multilingual environments | Convert school library books to digital format with voiceover to share with local schools |
Ethical supply chains | Use of documentary to raise awareness of ethical issue that was explored for a reflective project |
Access to sport for disadvantaged children | Creation of tennis tournaments at a local tennis centre to promote access for all |
Children's mental health i/ssues | Creation of a social media project to counteract the effects of isolation during the pandemic and connect the school community |
Key question for success? 'Are the students thinking about what they think the community needs or what the community thinks it needs?'
Context? An IB World School offering the DP and just going through authorisation for the CP with a priority to identify the location and reach of service learning.
What role does research play? The research stage of service learning incorporates explicit reference to Approaches to Teaching and Learning; not just research skills but social, communication, self-management and thinking skills too. Research also involves identifying the best source of expertise; for example students must seek out guidance from someone in the community with local knowledge to carry out accurate risk assessments for a new problem involving data collection for a National Park on the island.
How do you ensure the students are creating relevant service learning experiences? Students must ask themselves 'have you asked what is really needed?' For example a response to helping a local refuge centre was to create a clothing and bedding drive but this resulted in so many donations that the refuge centre had no place to store these effectively. Students spending time to work out where the priorities should be and avoiding the impulse to create a quick fix.
What part does reciprocity and reach play? The school hosts international nights and invites guest speakers from local projects. The school has long term projects that students cannot just slot into without reviewing, revisiting, reimagining or reinventing the oroject. The project may not be new but the learning will be.
Key question for success? 'Have you considered what is REALLY needed?'
Context? Plymouth College of Art started offering the CP in September 2019. Like many schools, their rolling out of this programme has been impacted by the pandemic. As a result service learning has arguably developed in a different but meaningful way. Adaptability has been the key!
What role does research play? The key here is to find a starting point and be willing to adapt to circumstances. Once you have CP2 students they can act as great advocates for service learning and can model their process for CP1 students.
How has the last few years impacted service learning? Students are inspired by their career-related studies experiences. For example, students started their service learning journey designing a mural that would be created in the local community. With the pandemic, this service learning opportunity was paused but not abandoned; it evolved into a digital mural-making opportunity. Students have also developed projects in mask making. The overall effect has been one of making meaningful connections with the local community.
What has been the impact of service learning so far? Service learning requires students to step literally outside the parameters of their CP course. Their career-related studies are of course practical and with real world relevance but the service learning demands creating a direct impact in your local community. What has been most noticeable is the impact of opportunities for smaller projects and individual learning within larger legacy projects.
Key takeaway? The power of the individual. Service learning can create ideas 'of what one individual can achieve'. Seeking that moment when 'the total educational experience is more than the sum of its parts'
Context? An established CP programme in a school that has offered the DP for over 20 years, the challenge here was to find new ways for students to be motivated by service learning. When the real world meanings are made clear and opportunities arise for students to be more in touch with the world, it allows students to thrive in the core.
What role does research play? It is not just about finding a starting point. Research is needed the whole way through service learning as a way of continuously identifying needs.
How do students find relevance in their service learning experiences? There have been numerous examples of where students have not found true meaning in the research phase but by putting themselves physically in places with opportunities, their experiences have truly taken off. For example, a group of students working with a local car company, found an opportunity to create a tyre safety campaign to encourage safe changing of summer to winter tyres in the local community. Another example included a student working at a building firm but finding an opportunity to revolutionise they way they classified, recycled and disposed of waste materials.
What has been the impact of service learning so far? Service learning has an impact within the core, the school and the wider community. One student's service learning, language development and reflective project all revolved around the same community project.
Key takeaway? For students who find motivation and identifying a project they would like to commit to, encourage them to be patient and place themselves in an area where opportunities might identify themselves. 'Build it and they will come'.
'Success for a student depends on where they are trying to find meaning in what they are doing'
Context? 'Links to career areas both inside and outside of school brings authentic opportunities to the Service Learning aspect of the CP'.
What is the key to successful service learning experience over the two year course?
Research: there needs to be a thorough research stage so students can clearly identify the needs of all stakeholders
Skills: students need time to build skills across the course so CP1 can very much be about building skills working on projects within the school community
Practicality: students need skills that can help turn theory into practice
Inspire and celebrate: a sense of competition can work well with students as well as key moments to recognise the achievements fo service learning opportunities
Where are the problems? Service learning can seem relatively straightforward when students already have interests and the drive to push these further. Students can really struggle when they have no real starting interests.
What role does the whole core play in service learning success? For the service learning to work, it needs to be closely affiliated with the PPS course and the development of ATL skills and 'teaching students how to be learners'. There should be explicit application of shared core elements such as ethical issues and dilemmas. These are often taught in a separate section of the course but opportunities can be found to bring this into service learning with the identification of needs in the local community that involves a clear ethical dilemma.
Key takeaway? Look at potential for legacy in the service learning projects that are created with the community as this
gives a greater sense of 'working with' rather than 'working for'.
Le Bocage International School (LBIS), Mauritius
Globally, educators have found themselves having to adapt more than ever over the last few years. Namrata Gujadhur, the CP Coordinator at Le Bocage, International School, tells us how she, and her team of dedicated teachers and students, have navigated the Service Learning course during the last 2 years and the adaptations made in such difficult circumstances. No doubt this is typical of many wonderful CP schools around the world.
Le Bocage International School (LBIS), Mauritius
'At Le Bocage International School (LBIS), we have some cardinal principles that we abide by and our main motto is to Learn, Build, Innovate, and Succeed, by nurturing innovative & holistic leaders for a changing world. It is almost unquestionable that the COVID-19 pandemic has eclipsed the lives of one and all. Different individuals have felt its effects at varying intensities depending on their status, place, and condition. This perhaps undesirable condition of the globe has pushed Service Learning at Le Bocage to discover dimensions that otherwise would have been left veiled.
Students have engaged in exhaustive research in finding NGOs, communicating and collaborating with them in order to develop online platforms through which these NGOs may reach out to a larger audience and accordingly dispense help to those in need.
Beyond students under the guidance of teachers, initiated a “Bigs and Littles Programme” through which they mentored the younger and new students of the school, online. The intent for this activity was to allow the new students to familiarise themselves with the people and culture of the LBIS community as otherwise they would have been deprived of this opportunity due to the lockdown imposed soon after schools resumption in JIB Docs (2) Teamary.
Students have wholeheartedly dedicated themselves to mIB Docs (2) Teamfacturing masks, created ebook on nature’s cure for healthy living, organized food drives for the homeless, hosted online fitness, stretching and Zumba sessions, initiated a lockdown solidarity campaign with the Rotary club, etc. They also created digital brochures, and posters to raise awareness in view of the significance of abiding by the COVID-19 protocol suggested by the local government for the safety and benefit of all'
with huge thanks to Namrata Gujadhur
Selected Pages

Service Learning activities 5 December 2022
Supporting a flexible process with the learning outcomesStart with the learning outcomes. Some of the learning outcomes...
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