By LeeAnne Lavender, PeerSphere Storyteller
An IB Diploma Coordinator at Changchun American International School (CAIS) seeks to enhance her school’s CAS program and service learning initiatives. Through PeerSphere’s Global Citizenship and Service Learning Educators Community, she discovers new perspectives and approaches to integrate meaningful service experiences within her unique international school context. Her journey demonstrates how professional development – in this case, PeerSphere’s PD model that involves peer collaboration, applied learning, and structured discussion – can transform both individual practice and institutional vision.
The Challenge
At CAIS in China’s Jilin province, about 1000 kilometres northeast of Beijing, Kristy Goodman has faced multiple transitions: moving from middle school to high school leadership, taking on the IB Diploma (DP) Coordinator role, and managing multiple responsibilities including DP English Language B teaching, extended essay coordination, and college counselling.
Despite leading a school with over 530 students from diverse backgrounds and a teaching staff from all five continents, Kristy needed support and guidance on leveraging this international environment for meaningful service learning experiences. Her more isolated geographic setting meant she was unable to access educational networks and professional learning to support her in her new roles and with the design of a cohesive service learning program.
“As well, Covid had made service and CAS challenging at our school, and I wanted to think about how we could do things more intentionally at CAIS,” says Kristy.
Less than 1% of a school’s overall budget is spent on professional development in the majority of international schools. isminc.com
Based on PeerSphere survey data from Professional Development leads, we estimate that the annual PD budget for a typical international school in Asia is between $500-1000 per person. It’s highly variable, with many schools having no distinct PD budget at all.
How PeerSphere Met the Challenge
Kristy joined PeerSphere’s 2023/24 Global Citizenship and Service Learning Educators Peer Learning Community and this provided her with structured professional development opportunities. Through collaborative discussions and breakout sessions, she gained practical insights from experienced educators.
A key learning moment came during a session with Haakon Gould from Shanghai Community International School, who helped shift her perspective on resource limitations by emphasizing the importance of building service programs from within the school context before expanding outward.
“Talking with Haakon in a breakout room, I mentioned that I missed living in Shanghai and having more access to English resources, but he explained how they root their service program in the SCIS school context first, before building out into the broader community. That has shifted how I’m thinking about what we can do here at CAIS,” Kristy explains.
The Community’s collaborative nature gave Kristy a platform to exchange ideas, discuss challenges, and learn from successful models implemented at other international schools. This has enabled Kristy to lead more confidently, design her program more creatively, and engage her community stakeholders in service learning processes and experiences.
Positive Outcomes and Future Impact
Through PeerSphere, Kristy has developed stronger goals for the service learning program at CAIS. She has moved beyond viewing her location’s limitations as obstacles and instead sees opportunities to build from within. Her vision includes enriching the CAS program with more experiential learning opportunities and integrating service learning more deeply into the Middle Years Programme curriculum.
With plans to remain at CAIS long-term, Kristy is positioned to implement sustained changes that will impact both DP and MYP programs. Her experience shows how targeted professional development through peer learning communities can transform not just individual teaching practice but contribute to broader institutional growth and innovation in service learning approaches.
Structured and purposeful peer learning through PeerSphere has helped Kristy overcome professional learning limitations that traditional methods couldn’t solve.
The cost of sending one person to an education conference in Asia is between US$1,500-3,000.
