This document outlines three strategies for teaching working adult students (WASs): schema activation, case studies, and problem-based learning. Schema activation involves activating students' prior knowledge and experiences to help them relate new content to their work. Case studies allow students to analyze work-related situations and develop theoretical knowledge and structured abilities. Problem-based learning immerses students in real-world problems to promote active, practical learning linked to their work contexts. The strategies aim to make content more meaningful and applicable for WASs by connecting it to their lives and jobs.

1. TheWASs'KnowledgeandAbilitiesChart
Sample Strategies to work with WASs
Name of the
attribute:
The WASs' knowledge and abilities are a set of
characteristics related to the learning processes acquired along
the WAS's life.
 Some research makes clear that the WAS, before
entering a study program, has developed a set of
knowledge and abilities based on their work and life
experiences and, that they wish to relate these to the
contents proposed so as to find them meaningful and
useful, for a rapid application and transfer to their real
context.
Strategy 1:
Schema
Activation
Since WASs come to class with specific knowledge rooted in
their work practice, and abilities based on previous experiences,
the activation of their prior knowledge or schema activation is
necessary.
“The purpose of activating schema is to have the learner
recreate an experience so new information can be associated
with what is already known. Since students come from different
backgrounds with different experiences, the past becomes the
glasses in which learners view the world and what they are
learning” (Activating Schema, n.d.).
Schema Activation’s Benefits:
1) Setting the mood for deep learning
2) Having students remember past work experiences linked
to course content
3) Helping learners relate new content with information
they handle at work or work practices
Strategy 2:
Case Studies
A case study is defined as a “documented study of a specific
real-life situation or imagined scenario, used as a training tool

2. in business schools and firms. Students or trainees
are required to analyze the prescribed cases and present their
interpretations or solutions, supported by the line of reasoning
employed and assumptions made” (Cased Study, n.d.).
This strategy for instruction can help learners fill in the lack of
theoretical knowledge of the knowledge and abilities required
through their work practices and the lack of an organized
structure of knowledge and abilities. The exercise can supply
these for them.
Case Study’s Benefits:
1) Helping learners analyze work-related situations to
provide them with theoretical knowledge
2) Aiding students to support their line of reasoning with an
organized structure of knowledge and abilities
Strategy 3:
PBL
“Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is an instructional method of
hands-on, active learning centered on the investigation and
resolution of messy, real-world problems” (Problem-Based
Learning (PBL), n.d.).
In the WASs’ classroom it can server lots of pursposes to help
them learn more actively and deeply. By means of PBL the
instructor can get a high level of participation and
communication, clarity in study objectives, experience acquired
in the work area, expressivity and spontaneity, and practical
use purpose.
PBL’s Benefits:
1) Contextualizationof learning in real-life working
situations
2) Increasing the participationof students by bringing them
situations they experience at work
3) Point out the purpose and practical use of approaches
and methods presented by theory in real contexts
experienced by learners
Chart designed by Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano with three possible strategies to work with WASs