Service as Action
A handbook for MYP students and their families
Service as action in IB program ………………………………………………………………………….………….…… page 2
Students involvement and program continuum ……………………………………………………………….………page 3
Connection between service and subjects taught at school ……………………………………………………. page 4
Service for and with others ………………………………………………………………………….…………………. page 5
Service as Action learning outcomes …………………………………………………………………....…………………page 6
Learning outcomes schedule at RFS and types of service ……………………………………………….….…. page 7
Planning for service as action…………………………………………………………………………………….……. page 8
Participation expectations ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. page 9
Examples of activities at RFS ……………………………………………………………………….…………….…. page 10
Page 1 of 10
Updated/ October 2020
MYP: From Principles to Practice (September 2014/January 2015).
Service as action in IB program
Action (learning by doing and experiencing) is a key component in constructivist
models of education, including the kind of teaching and learning common to all IB
programs. Service, as a subset of action, has always been a shared value of the IB
community. IB learners strive to be caring members of the community who demonstrate
a personal commitment to service, and act to make a positive difference to the lives of
others and to the environment. IB World Schools value service with others as an important
way to engage in principled action across a range of overlapping local and global
communities. Through responsible action, tightly connected with sustained inquiry and
critical reflection, young people and adults can develop the kinds of attributes
described by the learner profile that are essential for success in future academic pursuits
and for adult life.
In the PYP, action has a specific meaning as an element of the program in which there is
an expectation that successful inquiry will lead to responsible action, initiated by the
student as a result of the learning process. This kind of student action may have a
wider social impact, and it always represents a voluntary demonstration of a student’s
empowerment.
Action in the MYP builds upon the action initiated in the PYP and continues as an essential
component of the learning process, both as part of the program’s educational
philosophy and as a practical outcome of students’ learning. The MYP aims to help
students develop their personal understanding, their emerging sense of self and their
developmentally appropriate responsibility in their community. In the IB continuum, this
continues with the service component of the DP’s community, action, service (CAS)
requirements, in which students continue to increase their awareness of their own
strengths and areas for growth, undertake new challenges, plan and initiate activities,
work collaboratively with others, show perseverance and commitment, engage with
locally and globally significant challenges and consider the ethical implications of their
actions.
As students become more aware and acquire a better understanding of the
context, and of their responsibilities, they become empowered to make choices
about how to take thoughtful and positive action. This action will be different from
student to student and from context to context.
Page 2 of 10
Updated/ October 2020
MYP: From Principles to Practice (September 2014/January 2015).
The action may involve students in:
1) feeling empathy towards others.
2) making small-scale changes to their behavior
3) undertaking larger and more significant projects
4) acting on their own.
5) acting collaboratively.
6) taking physical action.
7) suggesting modifications to an existing system to the benefit of all involved
8) lobbying people in more influential positions to act.
* The service as action continuum could be summarized by the following diagram.
Page 3 of 10
Updated/ October 2020
MYP: From Principles to Practice (September 2014/January 2015).
Connection between service and subjects taught at
school
Service requires that students are able to build authentic connections between
what they learn in the classroom and what they encounter in the community y. When
connected to classroom learning, the experience of service offers opportunities to
apply concepts, both skills and knowledge, as students explore the community in its
complexity, gain personal insight, develop existing and new skills, and grow in confidence
and responsibility as they become “actors” in the “real world” beyond school.
Teachers can engage students in applying subject matter to developing plans and
partnerships to meet real identified needs using a service-learning model.
Experiencing a service-learning approach within an academic class becomes a critical
and essential process for students. Having this experience, particularly when the
service-learning process is made explicit, provides a reliable model for students to use as
a means and method for taking more independent initiative with an idea for service.
Guided or classroom learning that leads to action addressing an authentic
community need is most meaningful when allowing for student initiative that
incorporates their interests, skills and talents. The process also provides structured
time for both formal and informal reflection on the service experience. When the
service experience has meaning and purpose for all involved, participating in reflection is
also seen as rewarding. By reflecting on their service experience, students may gain a
greater awareness of the community and world they live in, and their role and
responsibility in improving the lives of themselves and others.
Page 4 of 10
Updated/ October 2020
MYP: From Principles to Practice (September 2014/January 2015).
Service for and with others
Service activities should evolve beyond doing for others to engaging with others in a
shared commitment towards the common good. Meaningful service requires
understanding of an underlying issue such as poverty, literacy or pollution, and
authenticating the need for this service. Meaningful service includes interaction, such
as building links with individuals or groups in the community. To align with the general
principle that the rights, dignity and autonomy of all those involved in service are
respected means that identification of needs towards which a service activity will be
directed has to involve prior communication and full consultation with the community
or individual concerned. This approach, based on a collaborative exchange, maximizes
the potential benefits for all the people involved, including learning opportunities for
students as they develop and strengthen communication abilities.
When schools have long-term established relationships with community partners that
are the foundation of service experiences, students must still have a role in
understanding the current need for these relationships and verify how their actions will
benefit others. They can examine and refine prior plans to be more relevant and
integrate their particular set of abilities and expanding knowledge.
Page 5 of 10
Updated/ October 2020
MYP: From Principles to Practice (September 2014/January 2015).
Service as action learning outcomes
With appropriate guidance and support, MYP students should, through their
engagement with service as action:
1) Become more aware of their strengths and areas of growth: You are able to see yourself
as an individual with various skills and abilities, some more developed than others, and
understand that you can make choices about how you wish to move forward.
2) Undertake challenges that develop new skills: Challenges and new skills may be those
not previously undertaken or acquired, or those that extend your existing expertise.
3) Discuss, plan and reflect student-initiated activities: The planning and initiation of an
activity should involve a discussion and evaluation of objectives, responsibilities and
expectations.
4) Persevere in Action: At a minimum, this implies showing determination and commitment
by attending activities regularly and accepting a share of the responsibility for dealing with
problems that arise in the course of activities.
5) Work collaboratively with others: Collaboration can be shown in many different
activities, including working with coaches, adults and other students.
6) Develop international-mindedness through global engagement, multilingualism and
intercultural understanding: This can mean being involved in international projects, but
there are many global issues that can be acted upon locally or nationally (e.g.,
environmental concerns, caring for the elderly).
7) Consider the ethical implications of their actions: Ethical decisions arise in almost any
S&A activity (e.g., by considering who will and who will not benefit from your actions).
These learning outcomes identify the substance of students’ self-reflection on service as
action. All of these learning outcomes are closely associated with IB learner profile
attributes and ATL skills. Through their participation in service, students can become
more confident, self-regulated learners.
Page 6 of 10
Updated/ October 2020
MYP: From Principles to Practice (September 2014/January 2015).
Learning Outcomes Schedule at Ramallah Friends Upper
Schools-MYP
MYP year, Grade Minimum learning outcomes
Year 1, Grade 6 2 learning outcomes
Year 2, Grade 7 3 learning outcomes
Year 3, Grade 8 4 learning outcomes
Year 4, Grade 9 6 learning outcomes
Year 5, Grade 10 7 learning outcomes
Types of Service
Direct service, indirect service and advocacy
Direct service: Service that involves direct interaction with a targeted cause, whether it is
people, the natural environment, or animals. Examples include and are not limited to:
developing a waste management policy for a chosen community, holding craft lessons at an
elderly person’s home, working in the afterschool care program, or tutoring students.
Indirect service: Service that has a verified benefit to the targeted cause, but you do not
see or interact with the beneficiary of the service. Examples include and are not limited to:
developing promotional material for an NGO, developing materials to support
improvements in literacy, updating the website for an orphanage located overseas,
organizing a concert to benefit a local NGO, fundraising for an NGO, or joining an
environmental cause such as Earth Hour.
Advocacy: Advocacy means the act of pleading or arguing in favor of something. You are
likely to have to conduct research about the chosen topic (possibly linked to something you
have learnt in class) before taking action. Examples include joining or initiating an awareness
campaign about the plight of a local waterway, submitting articles to local media on issues
of poverty, creating a video on improving waste disposal in the community and posting it
online, or advocating for an awareness campaign on hunger.
Page 7 of 10
Updated/ October 2020
MYP: From Principles to Practice (September 2014/January 2015).
Planning for service as action
MYP schools are responsible for planning opportunities for students’ involvement in
service with the community. These opportunities should be aligned with MYP learning
outcomes for service.
Opportunities for service in the community often require additional detailed curriculum
planning. Service activities should be appropriately adapted to local circumstances, and
they should take into account students’ development, aptitudes and preferences.
Students in the final years of the program should, with proper guidance, develop the
scope and nature of service activities and have responsible roles in planning, organizing
and implementing service activities to reflect their growing maturity and autonomy.
Action can become part of the MYP unit-planning process at several points: adding
specific learning engagements (using a service-learning model) to meet curriculum
objectives through principled action through service with others; providing students
with ideas and opportunities through which they might choose to take or organize action
themselves through service with others; using global contexts that invite students to
initiate their own inquiry into local expressions of global challenges.
The considerations and choices about what community issues to address can extend
directly from the curriculum. Classes can discuss how what they are learning is reflected
in the world around them, and investigate related needs. As issues and needs present,
students can determine where and how to apply their skills and talents in service that
makes a contribution, improves a situation or otherwise has impact. Local service allows
students an experience that can more easily extend over time to build continuity, allows
for the development of relationships, and provides a vantage point to observe and
participate in sustained change, challenge and collaboration. From the local, students can
consider the global implications of their actions, and extend their thinking and knowledge
to global awareness and understanding.
If students are planning a service experience with global emphasis, it is highly
recommended they consider ways to include and integrate local action. Students can
also consider extending local actions to global impact through partnerships with
students in other cities and towns, countries and continents. Technology affords myriad
opportunities for networking, sharing of initiatives, partnerships and impact.
Page 8 of 10
Updated/ October 2020
MYP: From Principles to Practice (September 2014/January 2015).
Good practices developed by schools with successful
MYP service programs include:
• high levels of student involvement in planning for action that helps students demonstrate
learning outcomes
• authentic connections with the curriculum
• regular and varied opportunities for self-directed student reflection, using student-
chosen media and methods (art, music, a brief narrative, conversations, blogs,
photographs, drama, or other methods that engage creative thinking)
• consideration of ethical issues that arise from engaging in service activities, including
responsibility for acting with personal and institutional integrity
• guided practice in critical reflection, including models and strategies that help students
create meaning from their experience in service activities, as well as meaningful feedback
from peers, teachers and other adults
• emphasis on the quality of service, rather than on a system of counting hours devoted to
service activities
• diverse opportunities for service with others throughout the program, which can include
learning about important issues, informing others, engaging in advocacy, organizing and
taking individual and collaborative action
• clear understanding of the principles of mutual exchange, along with sustainable activities
and relationships.
MYP schools are responsible for determining qualitative expectations for students’
participation in service as action, in line with the learning outcomes for service in this guide.
Fulfillment of the school’s expectations for participation in community service is a
requirement of the IB MYP Certificate.
Page 9 of 10
Updated/ October 2020
MYP: From Principles to Practice (September 2014/January 2015).
Examples of Activities at FBS
Student Government
Open Day
Olive Season
Model United Nations Club
Various Clean Up Campaign
Modern Dance
Drama & Theater
Planting Trees
Yearbook
Sport activities
Gardening (Kay-kab)
Quaker Day Care Visits and Activities
Reading to the Elderly (The Women Union Senior Citizens Home)
White Gifts
Page 10 of 10
Updated/ October 2020
MYP: From Principles to Practice (September 2014/January 2015).
