One of the most persistent critiques of educational leadership preparation programs has been the need to more explicitly address the application of theory to practice. Case studies have been used to serve this purpose, but there is little empirical research on their contributions to learning in preparation programs. This paper introduces features of the Educational Theory Into Practice Software (ETIPS) online leadership cases, summarizes reactions of students and instructors to them, and presents results from a two-year study that found that ETIPS cases develop students' decision making skills, and more generalized self-efficacy, confidence and certainty about the decision making process.
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