Honoring Diversity

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 also is 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.
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As mathematics classrooms are becoming more and more diverse, teachers aiming to help all of their students learn are increasingly challenged. Pandemic-related learning gaps, the arrival of newcomers who may have experienced interrupted schooling, and the increase in the number of students with disabilities in general education classrooms have intensified performance differences among students. It is widely recognized that teachers require help and support to meet the varied needs of the different students they serve. There is less certainty, however, about the kind of support that will help teachers to make this happen.
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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.
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