The preparation of school administrators requires strategies that develop the capacity of school leaders to make sense of unclear and unique situations or problems and to understand the complexities of schooling. This exploratory study focuses on a reflection process, in a graduate program in educational leadership, for developing administrators' thinking and decision making in building expertise. The rationale for the process is based on research in cognitive psychology. Analysis, both qualitative and quantitative, of student journal entries around critical incidents during the yearlong set of experiences revealed that change occurred in the level of reflection and complexity of thinking.
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