Computer-Based Simulations of the School Principalship: Preparation for Professional Practice

Abstract

For more than a decade, the Department of Educational Administration (now Educational Policy Studies) at the University of Alberta, Canada, has been involved in the development and instructional use of computer-based simulations of the school principalship. The success of the simulations as an instructional tool has been attributed to theirability to "invite " students to suspend disbelief and thus to engage in the simulations as though they were real work. Recent developments, taking advantage of advances in technology and informed by experience with the simulations, have focused on further enhancements to this aspect of the simulations.