CAS Stages

A tool to help you develop

The CAS stages are a tool to help you develop your experiences and you should use them to guide the planning and organisation of your CAS, especially your project.

The five CAS stages

Image: IB Diploma Programme Creativity, Activity, Service Guide (page 16). March 2015.

There are two parts noted in the diagram. The centre represents the process with four key steps: investigation, preparation, action, and reflection. The outer circle has two parts and guides students in summarizing their experience through reflection and demonstration.

The five CAS stages are as follows.

1. Investigation: Identify your interests, skills and talents to be used in considering opportunities for CAS experiences, as well as areas for growth and development. Investigate what you want to do and determine the purpose of your CAS experience. In the case of service, you should identify a need you want to address.

2. Preparation: Clarify the roles and responsibilities necessary for the experience or project to be a success, develop a plan of actions to be taken, identify specified resources and timelines, and acquire any skills needed to engage in the CAS experience.

3. Action: Implement your idea or plan. This often requires decision-making and problem-solving. You might work individually, with partners, or in groups.

4. Reflection: Describe what happened, express feelings, generate ideas, and raise questions. Reflection can occur at any time during CAS to further understanding, to assist with revising plans, to learn from the experience, and to make explicit connections between your growth, accomplishments, and the learning outcomes. Reflection may lead to new action.

5. Demonstration: You make explicit what and how you learned and what you have accomplished. To do this, you could, for example, share your CAS experiences through your CAS portfolio or with others in an informal or formal manner. Through demonstration and communication, you solidify your understanding of the learning outcomes and could evoke responses from others.

This video outlines the stages in relation to Service, but the same principles can be applied to Creativity and Activity too!

More information about the CAS stages is available in the IB Diploma Programme Creativity, Activity, Service Guide.