Spatial thinking—the ability to visualize, manipulate, and reason about objects in space—is essential for success in mathematics and other subjects such as science, engineering, and technology. Spatial thinking plays a role not only in learning about basic shapes, but it is also important in higher mathematics such as geometry and algebra. For instance, spatial thinking can help students to visualize word problems (e.g., using arrays to think about multiplication problems), picture equations and graphs, and to solve problems related to area, volume, and angles. In today’s world, where more time is spent indoors with increased passive screen time and limited opportunities for exploration and play, spatial skills are often underdeveloped in young children. However, research shows that young children can improve their spatial thinking by working with teachers (Casey et al., 2008) and parents (Borriello & Liben, 2018; Hall et al., 2023; Verdine et al., 2019).

The Math for All team has been reading Carol Ann Tomlinson’s Everybody’s Classroom for the past few months. There are many connections between Tomlinson’s work and our work in Math for All, as well as some key takeaways that deepen our understanding of making math accessible to all students. In this blog post, we explore what honoring diversity means to us and, building on Tomlinson’s work, take a deep dive into a flexible mathematics classroom environment that can enhance our ability to honor students’ diversity as learners.