First CAS interview
There is a minimum of three scheduled CAS interviews during a student’s DP. Ideally, the first interview is scheduled during the very early stages of the DP. Prior to this interview, be certain that students have attended a CAS orientation and have access to relevant information. Students may also have attended one or more group sessions that review key elements of CAS, so they have an established understanding and look forward to their CAS programme.
The purpose of the first interview is to:
- gauge the student’s understanding of CAS
- find out the interests of the student
- discuss the student’s plans for CAS experiences
- review the learning outcomes of CAS, ensuring his or her understanding and seeing how the student might achieve these outcomes
- ensure the student is aware of ways to gather evidence of CAS.
Questions are offered for each of these discussion topics as examples. Please adjust and adapt them for what is meaningful for your CAS students and their CAS programme.
Understanding
Students need to have a firm understanding of the CAS programme and the many opportunities available. If the word “requirements” is over-emphasized, students may be preoccupied with checking items off a list when they are done. School has many requirements; however, what is most important in CAS is the level of involvement and personal commitment. How students regard the programme will deeply influence how they participate.
Questions to ask
Do you have any questions or concerns about CAS?
Which aspect of the programme excites you the most? Which aspect seems most challenging?
What do you most hope to achieve from CAS?
How do you think your CAS programme will enable you to grow? How do these areas of growth apply to the attributes of the IB learner profile?
What have you learned about the CAS stages, and how can the stages help you in CAS?
How will you plan for an equal distribution of CAS strands across your CAS experiences?
What organizational and time-management strategies do you have in place to ensure that CAS remains an ongoing focus of your IB journey?
Your school’s CAS handbook can be the primary reference for the student; any basic questions should be answered through the CAS handbook. However, let students know they can always approach the CAS coordinator or advisers to assist with their understanding.
Student interests
Ensuring that students have identified areas of interest is important for determining their CAS experiences. The questions below may assist the student in identifying their interests, which leads to knowing what they would like to do for CAS.
Questions to ask
What are your main interests? How can you incorporate these interests into your CAS programme?
What do you enjoy doing after school? Could this be part of any CAS experience?
What are your personal goals? How could they be achieved through CAS?
What do you expect to gain from CAS? What do you hope to accomplish?
How can you advance your skills and talents through CAS?
What school, community or other groups or teams are you already involved in?
Have you had any previous experiences that you would view as CAS?
How could something you do currently (for example, swimming) be made into a CAS experience with new opportunities to add skills and meet challenges?
What do you think your role could be in effecting change for the better?
What issues of local significance concern you most? How could you address these in your CAS programme?
How do these local issues also have global significance?
Student plans for CAS
Students may arrive at their first interview with different levels of preparation regarding their plans. If you want students to have a prepared outline of their CAS programme, advise them with ample time before the interview. Alternatively, use this first interview to help them create a basic outline, mind map or plan.
Questions to ask
What would you enjoy doing for creativity? Activity? Service?
Have you made any plans for creativity? Activity? Service? For each, what are you hoping to learn or do you have skills you want to develop?
Have you researched any groups that you could become involved in for any of the CAS strands?
What are you doing to expand your options?
What ideas do you have for a CAS project?
Are these ideas worth developing for a month or more?
What additional ideas do you have or backup plans if this is not viable?
Who will you work with for your CAS project?
CAS learning outcomes
Review the learning outcomes and ensure that students understand each one. For a group session on the learning outcomes, refer to this TSM under “Teaching strategy: Understanding learning outcomes”.
Questions to ask
How would you summarize these learning outcomes?
Can you summarize each of these learning outcomes in your own words?
From the plans you already have, do you see any opportunities that may be helpful in meeting these learning outcomes?
What learning outcome appears as something you will easily do?
What learning outcome might present a significant challenge?
What learning outcome might you address in the first six months of your CAS programme?
Evidence of CAS
Part of the students’ responsibility is to provide evidence that they have met the CAS learning outcomes through their accumulated experiences, have balanced their time in creativity, activity and service and have completed at least one project. How will they provide this evidence? This is important to discuss during the first interview.
Questions to ask
Have you thought of how you will keep evidence (and the types of evidence) that you are engaging with CAS and are meeting the CAS outcomes?
How often do you plan to use your CAS portfolio?
How will you reflect on your CAS experiences? Are there any preferred ways you like to reflect? (Note: The student may require suggestions or examples to develop a more diverse approach to reflection.)
How can you keep track of your plans and meeting the learning outcomes through your portfolio?
