Same thought here. People are going to learn and retain more if what you teach is grounded in the student's existing worldmodel. In fact, if it isn't, you arguably haven't taught them anything at all!

Compare:

"A snorble is a snopful that has two to three zigtugs. Many snopfuls are found in tigglesneck contexts. This will be on the test!"

vs:

"Okay, you know horses, dogs, and oxen? We classify those as snorgfuls because they have properties X Y and Z, which you may remeber if you've had [experience] with one of those. Non-snorgfuls would act differently because of having these other properties, which shows up in how ..."

Sadly, most teaching is like the first, and people don't even try to make it like the second.