Chais2025_Heb_and_Eng-web

Ilana Ram, Yinnon Stav, Firas Ramadan, Lisa Bosman E71 Proceedings of the 20th Chais Conference for the Study of Innovation and Learning Technologies: Learning in the Digital Era D. Olenik-Shemesh, I. Blau, N. Geri, A. Caspi, Y. Sidi, Y. Eshet-Alkalai, Y. Kalman, E. Rabin (Eds.), Ra'anana, Israel: The Open University of Israel Problem-Solving before Instruction (PS-I) in Engineering Education: Mechanisms, How tos, and Outcomes (Poster) Ilana Ram Technion – Israel Institute of Technology ilana.ram@technion.ac.il Yinnon Stav Ruppin Academic Center, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology yinnon@ee.technion.ac.il Firas Ramadan Technion – Israel Institute of Technology firasramadan@campus.technion.ac.il Lisa Bosman Purdue University West Lafayette, IN, USA lbosman@purdue.edu פתרון בעיות לפני הוראה ישירה:מנגנונים, שיטות יישום ותוצאות )פוסטר( ינון סתיו המרכז האקדמי רופין , טכניון ה – מכון טכנולוגי לישראל yinnon@ee.technion.ac.il אילנה רם טכניון ה – מכון טכנולוגי לישראל ilana.ram@technion.ac.il ליסה בוסמן אוניברסיטת פרדו, מערב לפאייט , אינדיאנה, ארה"ב lbosman@purdue.edu פיראס רמדאן טכניון ה – מכון טכנולוגי לישראל firasramadan@campus.technion.ac.il Abstract Problem-solving before Instruction (PS-I) has emerged as a critical pedagogical approach in education, offering a robust framework for enhancing deep learning and problem-solving skills. In traditional engineering courses, students are often guided through Direct Instruction (DI) before solving problems, which can limit opportunities for exploring the underlying complexity of concepts. In contrast, PS-I reverses this sequence, requiring students to first engage with challenging, ill-structured problems before receiving formal instruction. This encourages active exploration, creative thinking, and resilience, as students must draw upon prior knowledge, make connections, and confront gaps in their understanding. This study presents a teaching intervention aimed at improving learning comprehension in an electrical circuits course (n=165) at an Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty by utilizing PS-I during an applied module on transients in second order electrical circuits. During the intervention students solved open-ended circuit analysis problems involving differential equations in groups before receiving formal guidance on solution methods. Following the problem-solving activity, students received targeted instruction via a recorded lecture and in-class tutorial lesson aimed at linked theory to the