Definition:

Student Action Teams involve a group of students who work on a real, identified issue of community interest. The students carry out research on the topic and develop solutions – either proposals for others or action they then take.

Principles:

• An active role for young people as part of their community;
• Young people as community investigators;
• Young people doing something that makes a difference or brings about change;
• Programs that involve learning and meet academic goals
  

Roles in SATs:

There are changed roles for students in their learning through SATs:

• Purposeful: students see outcomes that are important to them
• Productive: students create something that makes a difference
• Communal: students work together with fellow students, teachers and others

Some Previous Examples of Student Action Teams

See a fuller, hyperlinked list of recent examples of Student Action Teams on these pages.

Processes

The Student Actions Teams approach isn’t a set program; it is a learning and teaching approach, that is adapted to circumstances in individual schools and clusters of schools.

However, we have found ourselves using fairly consistent processes in practices so far:

• Engagement Event (Forum 1)

• Research Phase:
  what is the issue? what do we know about it?

• Research Reporting Event (Forum 2)

• Action Phase:
  what will we change? what will we do?

• Action Reporting Event (Forum 3)