For any student who has wondered, \When will I ever use this?"" when sitting in class, service-learning courses may provide an answer.
Service learning is a teaching method that incorporates community service and community-based research into academic class work. Students may take a horticulture course, for example, and work at the Allen Centennial Gardens as part of the class, or they might take a class addressing literacy and work with illiterate community members. For the spring semester, a service-learning designation of ""S-L"" was added next to the course listing in UW-Madison's timetable. The ""S-L"" classification can apply to classes in a variety of schools and departments.
Although classes of this type have existed for more than 30 years at UW-Madison, next semester is the first time they are officially designated as service learning, in an attempt to give more visibility to the style of education. Those involved describe service learning as a hands-on and rewarding experience, often giving students a chance to work with individuals very different from themselves.
But at a large university like UW-Madison, with a reputation as a strong research institution, it's hard for this type of academic style to catch on, according to Randy Wallar, assistant director of the Morgridge Center, which assists and supports faculty involved in the classes.
""The focus has been for years and years on research,"" Wallar said. ""It's kind of a mindset that these research institutions are struggling with right now.""
UW-Madison social work Professor Emeritus Mona Wasow said she has been teaching service-learning classes for 31 years.
""I wouldn't teach any other way,"" she said. ""It's teaching a class where the students can't shut up because they're so excited.""
Her students studying mental illness, for instance, work with patients at local mental-health institutions.
""That learning is so profound,"" she said. ""It brings out not only the know-how but also the compassion and the caring.""
She said UW-Madison's research emphasis often makes professors ""loathe to make the time commitment"" to establishing a service-learning class.
""I think a huge amount of professors really stay in the ivory tower and don't interact with their communities a lot,"" Wasow said.
The initial process of establishing a service-learning class is also time consuming, said Mary Rouse, assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs and director of the Morgridge Center.
""If it works well, it can be a transforming experience,"" Rouse said.
An example of a service-learning class offered this fall was Medical Spanish 319, taught by Anna Gemrich. Students spend part of the time learning medical vocabulary and the other part of the time working in agencies such as UW Hospital and Midvale, a bilingual kindergarten.
""One of the things that I think the students are surprised at is communication in a medical or a social environment is about so much more than vocabulary,"" Gemrich said. ""You need to know the patient.""
UW-Madison senior Jeff Heerhold, a former student in the class, said he appreciated being able to help someone through translating at a clinic rather than ""just taking exams all the time.""
New UW-Madison Provost Peter Spear said he would like to see the service-learning component grow at UW-Madison. As former dean of the College of Letters and Science at University of Colorado at Boulder, Spear oversaw service-learning classes. He estimated at least 5 to 10 percent of classes in the College of Letters and Science there were service-learning courses. This fall, UW-Madison offered fewer than 50 such courses, which is less than 0.5 percent of all classes.
""[Service-learning] really exemplifies the Wisconsin Idea of taking the benefits of the university out to the community,"" he said. ""It makes the subject matter of the course much more alive and real.""
Wasow said the administration's interest will help service learning grow.
""I think it takes the big guys, the people with the clout, to make things happen,"" Wallar said.
Mary Rouse said she loved service learning.
""It signals a change in higher education,"" she said.
However, not all courses are conducive to service learning.
Hans Reich, associate chair of the UW-Madison chemistry department, said he didn't think this genre of teaching had ever really caught on in the chemistry field at UW-Madison.
""It's kind of impractical to do this for 6,000 people a year, which is what we run through our courses,"" he said.
