From The CP Coordinator
The latest IB Conference in Daegu highlighted the significance of Education 5.0, which prioritizes students’ social and emotional development to enhance their lives in society and ensure their well-being. Inspired by this, our CP service learning project focuses on improving students’ lives within their communities.
With the theme “Removing Barriers, Building Futures,” our students initiated this year’s service learning project after visiting the rural school SD An Nur Adzikro, which lacks essential learning facilities like a library and sports facilities. Reflecting on their own holistic learning experiences and how they have positively impacted their well-being as learners, the students proposed building a sports facility and providing a library for SD An Nur Adzikro as the primary collaborative service project, in addition to sharing their knowledge and skills with the school’s students.
The service activities commenced with a community needs investigation followed by service preparation, including fundraising through a local flea market, designing the library and sports field, and practicing engagement with SD An Nur Adzikro’s students. The action phase involved collaborating with the community to build and paint the sports field and sharing knowledge and skills with the students.
By investing in the future of these young learners, we are not only transforming their lives but also laying the foundation for a more equitable and compassionate society.
Fostering Students Collaboration for the Successful Service Learning Project
Collaboration is a crucial skill for the success of any Service Learning project. Recognizing its importance, the students participated in a team-building activity on the first day of service. Working in their action groups, they played collaborative games. These games not only fostered collaboration skills but also enhanced critical thinking, as they included trivia and role-playing elements.
This aligns with the goals of service learning, which aim to develop students as leaders who take initiative, solve problems, collaborate with others, and enjoy the experiences of both learning and service. The first day of service was an engaging and fun activity that boosted the students’ confidence and enthusiasm for their service projects.
Removing Barriers, Building Future:
Sport Facilities as Catalysts for Holistic Education in Rural School
This year, Al Jabr IBCP Service Learning was conducted at SD An Nur Adzikro, a rural school located in Sukabumi, West Java. The school faces a lack of educational resources, including sports facilities and a library, which are essential for fostering holistic student education.
Holistic education, which encompasses both academic and socio-emotional learning, is a fundamental component of a well-rounded education. Recognizing this, the Al Jabr CP students initiated a project to construct a multipurpose sports field at the rural school, enabling students to engage in various sports such as badminton, soccer, and volleyball.
The students collaborated with the school community to construct a multipurpose sports field, undertaking tasks such as painting the field, fabricating goals from PVC, and installing the field net protector. The students exhibited great enthusiasm for this collaborative effort, expressing joy and pride in their ability to contribute to the school’s facilities and promote holistic education.
Music for All
Music is a universal language that helps people from different backgrounds communicate. Al Jabr CP students taught SD An Nur Adzikro students how to play the traditional musical instrument, Angklung. This helped the students communicate, despite their language differences, as most of the students speak the local Sunda language.
In addition to learning music, the students also developed intercultural understanding skills. They learned how to communicate with the students who mostly use Sundanese language by using body language, visual stimuli, and facial expressions. This opportunity has proven that learning can be enhanced through sharing.
Dance to Boost Confidence
Culture is an element that can contribute to promoting collaboration and confidence. Confidence is one of the challenges that students at SD An Nur Adzikro face. The CP students promoted the idea of teaching traditional dance from Aceh to the students with the goal of boosting their confidence.
The Saman dance, a traditional dance from that promotes collaboration as it requires the dancers to work together in perfect synchrony. By teaching the Saman dance, the CP students aimed to foster collaboration and boost the students’ confidence through this shared experience.
This strategy has proven that learning about culture is also a great way to boost confidence. The students confidently performed the Saman dance in front of the audience during the SL mini assembly on the last day (Friday, September 6,2024).
Equipping Football Skills
The CP students also taught football skills to the students of SD An Nur Adzikro, including fundamental techniques such as dribbling, passing, shooting, and defensive positioning, as well as tactical strategies like positioning, off-the-ball movement, and decision-making.
Through guided practice under the mentorship of the CP students, the elementary students were equipped not only to play football but also to do so with a solid foundation of knowledge and skills, thereby enhancing their overall football proficiency.
Smash the Shuttlecock
Badminton is a historically significant sport culture or tradition in Indonesia. Consequently, everyone is familiar with badminton, including the elementary students at SD An Nur Adzikro. They possess basic skills such as serving and smashing the shuttlecock. The CP students assisted them in refining their skills by sharing strategies for executing backhand and forehand smashes.
Both the students (CP students and elementary students) relished this service and learning experience. This demonstrated that service learning not only fosters a sense of care and responsibility for others but also provides enjoyable experiences of both learning and service.
Read Between the Colors
The library serves as the heart of the school, facilitating both learning and teaching. Recognizing the school’s lack of a library, the CP students initiated the creation of a wall library and donated books to the students of SD An Nur Adzikro for their use as learning resources. The CP students showcased their creativity by designing a mural on the wall to enhance the library’s aesthetic appeal.
The students collaborated with the elementary students in painting the mural. This activity allowed the students to express their individuality, creativity, and personal values through the mural (identity). It also fostered the students’ collaboration skills, as they practiced giving instructions to the elementary students and utilized their intercultural understanding to comprehend the local language (interaction). Moreover, this project involved physical activities in artistic endeavors, providing not only exercise but also a fun and engaging experience (active living).
Bridging the Literacy Cap: A Story of Service and Growth
Literacy skills are a fundamental skill of learning. The Al Jabr CP students investigated that a lack of literacy skills in SD An Nur Adzikro was due to a lack of resources, such as books. The students only learned from the teacher (teacher-centered learning). Reflecting on this situation, the CP students thought of sharing their literacy experiences with the elementary students with the purpose of introducing the use of books and making the literacy experience more fun and engaging by using songs and role-playing (drama).
As a follow-up to providing the library for the students, the CP students shared their experiences on how to utilize the books to support the students’ literacy skills, with the hope of building a reading culture among the elementary students. The CP students designed an activity that utilized a storybook, encouraging the students to read the book and role-play with it. The CP students also introduced basic English skills to the elementary students by using songs to introduce some basic vocabulary in English. This enhanced the students’ understanding of the story and made learning more fun and enjoyable for the students.
Empowering Local Business: Escalating Local Product’s Value
The Business students initiated the idea to empower the local businesses in Sukabumi. Sukabumi is a mountainous area with fertile soil rich in nutrients. As an agricultural area, it produces vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers, and tubers like cassava and taro.
Tubers are often processed into chips as part of the local home industry. The CP Business students initiated the idea of increasing the value of local products by assisting home industries that produce chips (from cassava, banana, and taro).They shared their knowledge of business, such as marketing, and helped these businesses design logos for their chip brands.
The goals of service learning are not only to develop and apply knowledge and skills to address authentic community needs but also to learn from the community and enhance the students’ knowledge and skills. In this service learning activity, in addition to helping local businesses by sharing business knowledge, the students also learned about the production of chips, from harvesting cassava to producing and delivering the final product to customers. This transformative experience has not only deepened the students’ understanding of business but has also instilled in them a lifelong commitment to community service and sustainable development.
