The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program requires students to complete a core element called CAS, which stands for Creativity, Activity, and Service (which, conveniently, are the element’s three strands). It’s a space for students to develop themselves into well-rounded citizens by participating in ‘CAS Experiences’ for each of the strands.
CAS reflects a student’s real role inside society and what surrounds them, showing how a student has become involved with their society. This means that, CAS program allows students to see how much they have helped their local community. For example, how much a student has engaged with volunteering on specific and local health centers. However, creating a good reflection, which is necessary to show that this has been accomplished, can be tricky.
This article intends to help its readers overcome obstacles related to writing these documentations, called CAS reflections. It will provide examples and recommendations for experiences surrounding the three core themes, as well as a method for writing reflections.
Project vs. Experience
Before getting into the reflection process, we must clarify the main differences between a project and an experience. Nonetheless, reflections can work similarly in both cases.
A project consists of a planned activity with an execution time of at least one month. Also, a project requires an elaborated and specific program that includes activities before, during and after the project. On the other hand, it is necessary to add the planning process through diagrams, documents, pictures, among others. However, an experience is an activity that can usually last a couple of days or just one day.
With this in mind, it’s time to master the art of reflection.
Creativity
When creating a reflection for a project or experience related to Creativity, it’s necessary to portray the positive and negative aspects a student overcame, never losing the focus on this core area. This might sound obvious, but not every positive or negative aspect directly relates to Creativity! For example, aspects such as punctuality or organization may be challenges you face that don’t necessarily relate to Creativity and thus, don’t exemplify your experiences performing the task.
The development of ideas or the creation of art in any form are aspects that highly align with the core theme of Creativity. For example, if a student’s project is to create a choreography for a school play, a positive aspect related to Creativity could be the planning of the choreography and a successful execution at the end. However, a negative aspect might be that some students participating in the play had a hard time learning the choreography.
A good CAS reflection would highlight how you solved this negative aspect. Maybe you figured out ways to teach the choreography to the students. Also, this solution could be related to Creativity as it might have involved an innovative way to help struggling students get out of their comfort zone when it comes to dancing.
It’s recommended to clearly portray how the student developed Creativity in their project. The reflection should put it front and center in the student’s experience. It should showcase the journey from brainstorming, initial motivation, development, and final product.
Developing a CAS reflection for Creativity needs creativity of its own!
Activity
For the strand of Activity, a good reflection should show how the area of Activity became relevant to the student’s life. This means that it becomes key to highlight how a specific routine or activity in general, related to the core subject, became a source of inspiration and knowledge.
Activity is commonly seen as a health-related aspect, but a student’s reflection should show that their experience/project goes beyond this statement. Although, this is perfectly fine to focus on, a student could also explore other benefits to activity such as building a more sustainable lifestyle, becoming more aware of your own capabilities and limitations and meeting new people that participate in the same activities! The student should show how, through the CAS experience or project, they now see Activity in a new way they didn’t perceive before.
For example, a student might be interested in participating in a race. Many people do this for improving their health or as a hobby, so the student must show how this specific race holds importance that goes deeper than a hobby or health interest.
Keep in mind that it’s important to add the experience of training before the race and not just running in the race. Only including the experience of participation can make the reflection ambiguous.
Similar to Creativity reflections, a recommendation for writing a reflection for the Activity strand is to focus on the journey, from the training (if that’s the case) and the initial motivation to the final goal.
Every detail should be included when writing CAS reflections!
Service
For this strand, students should develop a reflection that shows their achievement of goals related to Service. Students can do this by keeping in mind that this strand caters to altruism in the community, giving back, and advocacy on social justice. This area is very versatile, so a well-focused reflection that shows the new knowledge and experience the student has acquired should be their goal.
For example, a student’s project is giving food to low-income families or being part of an organization that feeds these communities. In that case, there’s a chance for a good reflection. It would be essential to highlight the student’s personal interest in helping these communities. Also, they must mention how this organization provides for society. For instance, an idea for reflecting on this is mentioning how this institution helps low-income families or citizens. Along with the feelings and discoveries that came with the whole project. This can be complemented with other aspects that can help create a more profound reflection, such as why the project was developed and the goals it helped accomplish.
The “4 F” Method
This method can be used if you’re struggling with developing your reflection. Always remember that mentioning the challenges faced, future possibilities, new knowledge, and encountered feelings is always appreciated.
Facts: This is where the student can describe the project’s development and when and where it took place. One way to do this is to list all the tasks done before (in preparation), during, and after the project.
Feelings: It’s important to emphasize all the emotions faced, especially feelings that weren’t experienced commonly before the project or those that were unexpected. The feelings included should be the ones that played a part before, during, and after the project. These feelings can be related to personal development or the overall completion of the tasks.
Find: Here, the student can describe their newly acquired knowledge. Also, students could reflect on the reasons for different results. This could be a core part of the CAS reflection since it’s a great chance to use critical thinking to go deeper into the overall results and understand what made them possible.
Future: Mention any further steps you can take that include the acquired knowledge and new skills. If there’s any opportunity for new projects and opportunities related to the theme worked on, or any new questions, be sure to include that.
Note: This is based on the method by Karla Fallas Moya (2024) from Costa Rica, extracted from the CAS Manual developed by Colegio Miravalle (2019) in complement to the IB CAS guide.
Concluding Thoughts on CAS Reflections
CAS reflections are expressed in many ways, so allow yourself to experiment with each one. Reflections can be in the form of a drawing, a video with a project member, or a written piece. These are just some examples, but you now have greater tools for developing your next CAS reflection.
Remember never to limit yourself so you can get the best reflection possible!