COMPUTER-BASED SIMULATIONS OF THE SCHOOL PRINCIPALSHIP - PREPARATION FOR PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

For more than a decade, the Department of Educational Administration ( now Educational Policy Studies) at the University of Alberta, Canada h as been involved in the development and instructional use of computer- based simulations of the school principalship. The success of the simu lations as an instructional tool has been attributed to their ability 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 t he simulations have focused on further enhancements to this aspect of the simulations.