Small school.
High standards.

Our educational philosophy

The model is based on of the works of Malcolm Knowles who wrote a book in 1986 called, “The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species.”

We have adopted the seven key factors Knowles found that stimulated adult learners:

1. Have an environment where students feel safe and supported; where individual needs and uniqueness are honored, where abilities and life achievements are acknowledged and respected.
2. Have an environment that fosters intellectual freedom and encourages experimentation and creativity.
3. Have an environment where faculty treat adult learners as peers, accepted and respected as intelligent experienced adults whose opinions are listened to, honored and appreciated.
4. Fosters self-directed learning, where the student takes responsibility for their own learning. They work with faculty to design individual learning programs which address each person’s needs and wants to learn to function optimally in our profession.
5. Establish pacing or intellectual challenge. Optimal pacing is challenging people just beyond their present level of ability. If challenged too far beyond, people give up.
6. Promotes active involvement in learning, as opposed to passively listening to lectures. Where students and instructors interact and dialogue, where students try out new ideas in the workplace, where exercises and experiences are used to bolster facts and theory, adults grow more.
7. Provides regular feedback mechanisms for students to tell faculty what works best for them and what they want and need to learn; and faculty who hear and make changes based on student input.