Өгүүллийн хураангуй: Abstract One of the key courses in the mathematics teacher education program in
Israel is arithmetic, which engages in contents which these pre-service mathematics
teachers (PMTs) will later teach at school. Teaching arithmetic involves knowledge
about the essence of the concept of “number” and the development thereof, calculation
methods and strategies. properties of operations on different sets of numbers, as well as
the properties of the numbers themselves. Hence, the question arises: how to educate
PMTs in order to supplement their mathematical knowledge with the required components?
The present study explored the development of arithmetic thinking among preservice
teachers intending to teach mathematics at elementary school. This was done by
matching the van Hiele theory of the development of geometric thinking to arithmetic.
Analysis of findings obtained both in the present study and in many studies of geometry
teaching indicates that this approach to considering the learners’ level of thinking
development might lead to meaningful learning in arithmetic course for PMTs.
