Marazon's Promethean Study

When reading Marzano's study, it was interesting to see how the effects of a promethean board can vary in different settings. the first note that I made, was that it had the lowest gain in improving instruction, a "small" gain, in the middle school ages. There were "medium" gains at the elementary and high school levels. I would find it interesting to further investigate why this change occured. Additional information that was presented is that the more experienced a teacher is and the more comfortable they were would greatly increase the positive effects of the promethean board. This concept alone proves how important continued education is for teachers. There was also valid information presented that showed that when a promethean board was used between 70 and 80% of the time, it would be most effective. If a teacher was to over use the promethean board (over 80% of instructional time) then there were negative effects discovered in the research.

I believe that Marzano's study would be very beneficial when trying to incoroporate promethean boards into a 3rd grade classroom. You can show the chart that demonstrated a positive "medium" gain in every area at the elementary level. When presenting to a school board, you must not only show the evidence of gain for the students, but you must also stress the importance of adequate teacher training to support these gains. It would be beneficial to have a promethean board available to use in your presentation so that the school board could see first hand examples of the benefits of a promethean board.