What to Write About (DP IB Creativity, Activity, Service): Revision Note

What prompts lead to high-quality CAS reflections?

Core reflective elements

• What happened—a prompt used to retell memorable moments

  • You should identify what was important, influential, or difficult

  • Briefly summarise what happened (1–2 sentences), then focus on what you learned and what changed

• Expressing feelings—explaining your emotional responses to experiences

  • This provides greater depth and personal connection

• Generating ideas—re-examining choices and actions

  • This increases awareness about yourself and specific situations

• Asking questions—you can ask yourself questions about people, processes, or issues

  • This prompts ongoing thinking

Prompts for deepening understanding

• Choices and values:

  • Consider why you made a particular choice and how the experience reflects your personal ideas or values

• Challenging perspectives:

  • Explore ways you are being challenged to think differently about yourself and others

• Moments of discovery:

  • Reflect on key points when a new insight occurs, a skill is mastered, or a challenge is confronted

Prompts for emotional literacy

• Emotional triggers:

  • Consider what specific events prompted particular feelings and how those emotions affected your decision-making

• Alternative outcomes:

  • Reflect on which different choices might have resulted in different feelings and results

• Personal significance:

  • Identify moments where your achievements deserve celebration or where you felt especially excited or sad

Prompts for ethical and global awareness

• Ethical reasoning:

  • This is the ability to identify and apply ethical concepts to evaluate if an action you took was morally justifiable

• Ethics of choices:

  • Ask yourself whether an event or organisation respects the differences of other individuals and groups

• Consequences:

  • Show awareness of the potential and varied impacts of choices and actions on yourself, others, and the community

• Global significance:

  • Recognise the global implications of local issues and identify global issues in your local community

Prompts for collaboration and future growth

• Collaboration skills:

  • Critically discussing the benefits and challenges of working with others to achieve a common goal

• Team roles:

  • Reflecting on the willingness to take on different roles within a team and listening respectfully to the proposals of peers

• Future possibilities:

  • Considering how you might use prior learning in new contexts or what you would do differently next time

• Goal setting:

  • Identifying strengths and weaknesses to support personal development and determining further actions for growth