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Service as action in the MYP

Service and action across the continuum of IB programmes

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 programmes. 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 programme 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 programme’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 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.

The service as action continuum could be summarized by the following diagram.

PYP MYP DP

Action initiated as Service as action that meets Service component of the CAS
a result of the a set of developmentally requirements that meets the
learning process appropriate expectations service objectives of the
set by IB programme

Figure 7
Service requires that students are able to build authentic connections between what they learn in the classroom
and what they encounter in the community. 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.

Service developed through the curriculum

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
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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.

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.

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. , Consider
the advantage of taking action in their community and locale as opposed to a place that distant or more foreign.
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 always 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 always 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 a myriad of opportunities
for networking, sharing of initiatives, partnerships and impact.

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,” (DP CAS guide (2008)) 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,
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.

Service learning model: The five stages of service

The guiding process with five stages of service learning developed by Kaye (2010) is recommended and
provides a useful framework to develop the attributes of the learner profile while building student capacity and
competency for initiative, self-awareness, collaboration, perseverance, understanding and ethical sensibility.
Students are encouraged to complete the five stages at least once during their MYP experience.

1. Investigation includes taking an inventory of student interest, skills and talents to be used in
considering opportunities. A social analysis of the issue being addressed is required. This analysis requires
gathering information about the identified need through action research that includes use of varied approaches:
media, interviews of experts, survey of varied populations, and direct observation/personal experiences.

2. Preparation involves the student planning the service experience with clarification of roles,
responsibilities, actions to be taken, resources required and timelines, while acquiring any skills needed to
successfully carry the plan to completion.

3. Action includes implementing the plan. Students may work individually, with student partners, in student
groups or with others.
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4. Reflection involves students describing what happened, expressing feelings, generating ideas, and
asking questions. Reflection occurs intermittently and in summation to gauge understanding and synthesis, to
assist with revising and rethinking plans, and to internalize the experience.

1. Demonstration involves metacognition, with students making explicit what and how they learned and
what they have accomplished, capturing the totality of the experience. Integration of technology is
encouraged.

Insert: visual - dynamic model of service learning by Kaye

By following these five stages, the student benefits are that service:

• enhances students’ willingness to take risks

• provides opportunities to practice ATL skills

• promotes metacognition (learning about learning)

• develops students’ ability to communicate and make relationships

• supports different learning styles

• enables all students to achieve, that is, to experience success.

Following these 5 stages encourages and supports student initiative as their choices and plans emerge from
and advance their interests, skills, talents and knowledge. As students evolve through the service-learning
process, they may engage in one or more types of action.

• Direct service: Students have interaction that involves people, the environment or animals. This can
appear as one-on-one tutoring, developing a garden alongside refugees, or teaching dogs behaviours to
prepare them for adoption.

• Indirect service: Though students do not see the recipients during indirect service, they have verified
that their actions will benefit the community or environment. This can appear as redesigning an
organization’s website, writing original picture books to teach a language, or raising fish to restore a
stream.

• Advocacy: Students speak on behalf of a cause or concern to promote action on an issue of public
interest. This may initiate an awareness campaign on hunger in the community, perform a play on
replacing bullying with respect, or create a video on sustainable water solutions.

• Research: Students collect information through varied sources, analyse data and report on a topic of
importance to influence policy or practice. They may conduct environmental surveys to influence their
school, contribute to a study of animal migration patterns, or compile the most effective means to reduce
litter in public spaces.

Today’s complex issues allow for diverse ways for students to respond. For example, students may explore the
larger issue of global hunger and choose to spend time at a local food bank providing assistance. Determining
the appropriate action for the situation is an essential part of the learning process. In some cases, students
may determine a solution to a problem or a need, for example by setting up a recycling center at school. At
other times they may contribute to the improvement of a situation by writing books that become teaching
resources. They may elect to initiate a campaign to reduce name-calling and discover this can expand to other
schools or communities. Upon examining a situation, choosing not to act can also be seen as a responsible
decision, however typically students find a method of response.

The following models draw from and benefit from applying the service-learning process. Some forms of service
require careful consideration in preparation and implementation. For example:
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• Immediate need ---In response to a natural disaster or famine, students often want to move toward
immediate action. Typically they quickly attempt to assess the need and devise a planned response. Later,
ideally, they further investigate the issue to better their understanding of underlying causes. This provides
greater context even if the service action has already taken place. With increased knowledge, students may
commit to ongoing assistance.

• Fundraising--- Students can draw from their interests, skills and talents to plan the method and manner of
fundraising. The preferred approach is for students to develop their understanding of the organisation they wish
to support and the issues they aim to address. Ideally students directly communicate with the organisation and
establish accountability for funds raised. Sharing the rationale for the fundraising educates others and
advocates the chosen cause.

• International Service---International service requires students having the background, understanding and
knowledge of the circumstance for the travel and the service, or the experience may be misunderstood as
recreational. Caution by the school is recommended when engaging in any form of international service.
Schools need to confirm that commercial providers, when used, act in accordance with the ethos of the IB.
Students benefit from serving in an international context when able to make clear links to parallel issues in their
local environs. The commonly held misconception that “real service” must involve students travelling outside
their own country must be avoided.

• Volunteerism---When students sign up to participate in service that someone else has planned they may
lack prior knowledge that provides a personal sense of purpose. In all situations involving service, being
informed and prepared increases the likelihood that the students’ contribution will have meaning and value.
Having a set time for investigation and preparation prior to joining the activity is highly recommended.

Requirements for student involvement in service in MYP

MYP schools establish their own planning for student involvement in service according to the required service
learning expectations used in self-assessment and as part of qualitative monitoring (see below) and the
guidelines in the MYP Coordinator’s handbook. In order to meet the IBs requirements, students must have met
the expectations of Year 5.

All of the learning expectations are closely associated with and encourage IB Learner Profile attributes and
ATL skills. The relationship with the schools ATL programme – students that develop skills to become self-
regulated learners are more likely to be able to self-initiate service activities.
The school’s planning for student involvement in service must include the following:

• Student involvement in service is planned for each year of the programme according to the required
service learning expectations.
• Wherever possible, service with others should be tightly anchored in the curriculum. At least some unit
plans in each year of the programme must provide opportunities, through inquiry, to participate in service
learning. ; Service can also be undertaken by individuals and groups whose concerns may lie outside any
classroom-based teaching and learning. MYP teachers can plan units with potential service outcomes in
mind from the outset.
• When following a service learning process, students have intermittent opportunities to participate in
reflection that allows for and encourages expression in a variety of self-determined modalities—art, music,
a brief narrative, a conversation, blog posting, photo, skit or other method. The quantity of reflection is not
the concern. Students generate reflection more naturally when they have more choice about how to
reflect and have participated in experiences that have relevance and purpose.
• Some form of student reflection on service in each year of the programme—reflection should always
include some consideration of ethical issues that arise from engaging in service activities, including
responsibility for acting with personal and institutional integrity. This can take many forms and need not be
limited to written journals; even casual and structured conversation or visual representations can lead to
critical reflection on the activity and a student’s participation in it, adding to understanding, ethical
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development and personal growth. Reflection is a taught activity; it is important that any reflection that
takes place in service is continuous, and should initially be through guided practices, leading to self-
guided reflection where appropriate.
The school’s planning for student involvement in service is recommended to include the following
• An emphasis on the quality of service being provided, rather than on a system of counting hours spent on
the task.
• Opportunities for students to participate in service on a regular basis.
• Careful consideration of the school’s local circumstances.
• Whenever possible, students should be able to explore a range of diverse opportunities for service with
others throughout the programme, which can include learning about important issues, informing others,
engaging in advocacy, organizing and taking individual and collaborative action. Service plans should
undertake to build shared understanding, to promote mutual exchange and aim toward developing
sustainable activities and relationships.

Learning expectations for service

MYP 1
Emerging awareness of their
own strengths and areas for
growth
Students begin to see themselves
as individuals with various abilities
and skills, some more developed
than others. With guidance and
support from service activity
leaders/teachers, they understand
that their choices determine the
effectiveness of service as action.
Learner profile attributes: reflective, open-minded
Appreciating the individual skills
and responsibilities involved in
participating in MYP service
projects with extensive support
and guidance from service
activity leaders/teachers
Students accept the challenge of
participating in MYP service as
action.
Learner profile attributes: balanced, risk-takers
Discussing and critiquing
service activities in an
appropriate manner with
support from service activity
leaders/teachers
Discussing and critiquing the roles
and responsibilities of participants
in existing service activities.
Learner profile attributes: inquirers, thinkers
MYP 3
Some awareness of their own
strengths and areas for growth
Students see themselves as
individuals with various abilities
and skills, some more developed
than others. With some guidance
and support from the service
activity leaders/teachers, they
understand that their choices
determine the effectiveness of
service as action.
Undertaking new challenges that
develop new skills for the
students with extensive support
and guidance from service
activity leaders/teachers
A new challenge may be an
unfamiliar service activity, or an
extension of an existing one.
Initiating and planning service
with extensive support from
service activity leaders/teachers
Initiated and planned activities will
often be in collaboration with other
participants. This includes
determining the roles and
responsibilities of participants.
MYP 5
A wide awareness of their own
strengths and areas for growth
Students see themselves as
individuals with various abilities
and skills, some more developed
than others. With minimal guidance
and support from service activity
leaders/teachers, they understand
that their choices determine the
effectiveness of service as action.
Undertaking new challenges that
develop new skills for the
students with support and
guidance from service activity
leaders/teachers
A new challenge may be an
unfamiliar service activity, or an
extension of an existing one.
Initiating and planning service
with minimal support from
service activity leaders/teachers
Initiated and planned activities will
often be in collaboration with other
participants. This includes
determining the roles and
responsibilities of participants.
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MYP 1 MYP 3 MYP 5

Showing commitment and Showing commitment and Showing commitment and
perseverance in their activities perseverance in their activities perseverance in their activities
At a minimum, this implies regular At a minimum, this implies regular At a minimum, this implies regular
commitment and accepting a share commitment and accepting a share commitment and accepting a share
of the responsibility of responding of the responsibility of responding of the responsibility of responding
to problems that arise in the course to problems that arise in the course to problems that arise in the course
of service. Commitment is of service. Commitment is of service. Commitment is
emotional. With perseverance, emotional. With perseverance, emotional and/or ethical
students begin to show students show determination to engagement. With perseverance,
determination to follow through. follow through. students show resolve and
determination to follow through.
Learner profile attributes: caring, principled
Working collaboratively with Working collaboratively with Working collaboratively with
others others others
Collaboration can occur as student Collaboration can occur as student Collaboration can occur as student
with students, student with with students, student with with students, student with
members of the school, or students members of the school, or students members of the school, or students
with the local or international with the local or international with the local or international
community. This involves community. This involves community. This involves
teamwork in undertaking the teamwork in undertaking the teamwork in undertaking the
service. service. service.
Learner profile attributes: caring, communicators
Developing international- Developing international- Developing international-
mindedness through global mindedness through global mindedness through global
engagement, multilingualism engagement, multilingualism engagement, multilingualism
and intercultural understanding, and intercultural understanding, and intercultural understanding,
with support from service with support from service with support from service
activity leaders/teachers activity leaders/teachers activity leaders/teachers
By learning about their Through participation in service, Through participation in service,
communities and shared students learn about and address students learn about and address
responsibility, students grow in global issues within local, national global issues within local, national
their awareness and understanding and international contexts. Global and international contexts. Global
of global and local challenges. challenges, such as poverty, challenges, such as poverty,
environmental sustainability and environmental sustainability and
education, often have local education, often have local
manifestations. manifestations.
Learner profile attributes: risk-takers, knowledgeable, principled
Considering the ethical
implications of their actions with
guidance from service activity
leaders/teachers
Students must be aware that their
choices and actions impact service
as action. Increased ethical
sensibility develops accountability
and leads to acting with integrity.
Learner profile attributes: principled, thinkers, open-minded
Principled action through service with others can take many contextually and developmentally appropriate
forms, including whole-school and community events, formal and informal classroom/local–global community
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service learning opportunities, and individual and group expressions that may (or may not) be apparent in
school.

Schools must have a system of qualitative monitoring of student involvement in service for each year of the
programme based on the required expectations listed above. Assessment of involvement in service should be
qualitative and holistic, rather than through assigning grades. Evidence of a school’s service learning—
including their global dimensions—might be found in learning experiences, reflections, journaling, culminating
events of a unit and/or externally developed and marked performances of understanding.(See also under
Assessment)

Keeping in mind the educational aims of the MYP, the activities should be undertaken gradually, be
appropriately adapted to the circumstances, and take into account the students’ age, aptitudes and
preferences. For maximum benefits, it is desirable that students determine the service idea and have key roles
in developing the plan for action with teachers as their guides. This is in accordance with the greater
expectations of autonomy and maturity in MYP students in the final years of the programme.

The experience should reward and enrich all involved.