Educational Leadership - November 2009

The Art and Science of Teaching
Robert J. Marzano
Teaching with
Interactive Whiteboards

Interactive whiteboards have become popular over the last few years, and it appears that heir use will continue to grow exponentially.

Indeed, books like The Interactive Whiteboard Revolution (Becker & Lee, 2009) attest to the depth and breadth of change that this tool can promote in classroom practice.

For those who may still be unfamiliar with the
technology, an interactive whiteboard is a large
display that connects to a computer
and a projector. The projector pro-
jects the computer’s desktop onto
the board’s surface, where users
control the computer with a pen,
finger, or other device. The board is
typically mounted to a wall or floor
stand. Various accessories, such as
student response systems, enable
interactivity.
Although many teachers have
enthusiastically adopted interactive
whiteboards, little research is avail-
able on their effect on student
achievement. However, in a study
that involved 85 teachers and 170 classrooms,
the teachers used interactive whiteboards to
teach a set of lessons, which they then taught to
a different group of students without using the
technology (see Marzano & Haystead, 2009).

What the Research Found

The study results indicated that, in general, using interactive whiteboards was associated with a 16 percentile point gain in student achievement. This means that we can expect a student at the 50th percentile in a classroom without the technology to increase to the 66th percentile in a classroom using whiteboards.

In addition, three features inherent in inter-
active whiteboards have a statistically significant
relationship with student achievement. The first

80 EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP /NOVEMBER 2009

is the learner-response device—handheld voting devices that students use to enter their responses to questions. The percentage of students providing the correct answer is then immediately displayed on the board in a bar graph or pie chart. Using voting devices was associated with a 26 percentile point gain in student achievement.

In general, using
interactive whiteboards
was associated with a
16 percentile point gain
in student achievement.

A second feature is the use of graphics and other visuals to represent information. These include downloaded pictures and video clips from the Internet, sites such as Google Earth, and graphs and charts. Use of these aids was also associated with a 26 percentile point gain in student achievement.

A third feature is the interactive whiteboard reinforcer—applications that teachers can use to signal that an answer is correct or to present information in an unusual context. These applications include dragging and dropping correct answers into specific locations, acknowledging correct answers with virtual applause, and uncovering information hidden under objects. These practices were associated with a 31 percentile point gain in student achievement.