Integrating work experiences into teaching

Purpose – Management educators are criticized for not maximizing the use of students' work experiences in the classroom. This paper aims to demonstrate how knowledge gained from work experiences can be organized into a teaching taxonomy and transformed into teaching strategies. The exemplar of learning to think strategically is used to illustrate the process. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reframes how teaching taxonomies can be developed and how teaching strategies that use work experiences can be created. Findings – The paper finds that knowledge gained from work experiences and the associated learning methods that created that knowledge, can be matched to required domain knowledge to form a teaching taxonomy and to develop teaching strategies. Practical implications – The paper presents a way to develop a teaching taxonomy that assists management educators in selecting teaching strategies that both use students' work experiences and are specific to the content to be learned. Originality/value – The paper offers a new framework and process for using workplace experiences in classroom teaching.