As primary school teachers, our practical experience tells us every classroom will include students with different learning styles and strengths. Some might instantly visualise patterns, others will prefer to read and write text, and others will learn best by talking, moving, telling stories, singing, or collaborating.

Tapping into students’ multiple intelligences provides many opportunities for students to thrive in their maths education.

Teachers who plan lessons that access their students’ varied intelligences don’t just reach more students – they deepen learning and build transferable skills for all their students. 

What the research tells us  

The value of catering to students’ multiple intelligence during maths lessons is backed by research.

Recent studies show that multiple representations (visual, symbolic, manipulatives, contextual) enhance understanding, especially among students who may otherwise struggle with abstract maths (Mainali, 2020).

And spatial cognition research (Casey et al, 2015) suggests that developing spatial reasoning early supports geometry, measurement, and problem solving across grades and can strengthen maths reasoning, spatial maths and analytical maths in later primary school grades. 

The theory in practice

Here are some practical ways you can use what the research tells us in your classroom to support students who learn through multiple intelligences.

1. Use multiple entry points and representation
   Introduce concepts via visuals, physical manipulatives, stories, and symbolics. For example, fractions: use pie charts, physical slices, number lines, and word contexts.
2. Provide a choice of tasks
   Give students options: work alone, pair, draw, build, write. Choice supports engagement and taps different intelligences.
3. Use music, rhythm, and movement
   For times tables or operations, rhythm/music helps retention. Movement (like acting out adding/subtracting) helps bodily-kinesthetic learners.
4. Encourage the use of visual tools and spatial reasoning
   Incorporate geometry with drawing, transformations, puzzles. Use tools like geoboards, tangrams, or dynamic geometry software if available.
5. Provide time for reflection and metacognition
   Ask students which method felt easiest, why they chose that approach, what they might try differently next time. Journals or math notebooks with reflections support intrapersonal learners.

Cultivate a classroom culture that celebrates all kinds of intelligences

You might like to try fostering a classroom culture that acknowledges all types of intelligences by trying the following:

• Celebrate diversity of thinking. When students share different representations, make time for comparing them.
• Use assessments that capture not only correctness but representation, reasoning, and creativity.
• Display student work that uses varied intelligences: pattern art, musical rhymes, diagrams, etc.

Key points

By intentionally designing maths lessons that appeal to multiple intelligences, you make maths more accessible, more engaging, and more meaningful throughout your classroom. Teaching maths in a way that honours multiple intelligences helps all students – not just those who “love numbers” – to see maths as something they can understand, enjoy, and excel in.