Musth in elephants

Animal behaviour is intimately connected with chemical signaling, often through glandular secretions. This is very significant and obvious in Asian male elephants during their musth period when their temporal glands secrete a fluid with a characteristic odor. Musth gland activity greatly influences the elephant society as well as manelephant interaction.     

Teaching Instructional Design: An Apprenticeship Model

Several cognitive psychologists have written about the importance of placing instruction within “authentic” contexts that mirror real-life situations. They argue that knowledge learned in academic settings does not necessarily transfer to non-academic settings. Whether preparing performance technologists or instructional designers, educators must strive to create meaningful problem-solving contexts that enable students to define, and subsequently solve, real-world problems. In an attempt to address this issue we have modified the way we teach instructional design. This paper discusses a cognitive apprenticeship approach to teaching design, which incorporates elements of modeling, coaching, reflection, articulation, and exploration. We describe how these features are embedded within three phases (orientation, situated training/learning, and exploration) of an introductory instructional design course designed to move our novice designers along a continuum of expertise as they develop and refine their own professional design skills. Although the apprenticeship model described here specifically addresses concerns within the context of preparing instructional designers, we believe that this model can be adapted to address similar issues in the education of performance technologists.