The educational philosophy, which this occupational therapy program embraces, is humanistic and progressive. This philosophy encourages active experimentation, along with independent and critical thinking. This philosophy also defines learning as self-directed, emancipatory and transformative. It supports professional preparation that employs interactive, integrated experiences, which impact the whole individual to produce a combination of skills and attitude competencies that emerge simultaneously during the educational process.

This humanistic and progressive educational philosophy is well suited to professional preparation that intends to exceed that of technical training. It is a philosophy that supports the use of learning objectives that can be explained using the cognitive, affective, and/or psychomotor realms of learning. The nature of learning activities endorsed by this philosophy include a wide variety that incorporate learner input, require learners to set their own educational goals, and encourage independent inquiry. This philosophy also tends to support principles that are considered adult-oriented, in that the learning experiences are designed to be high practical, relevant to the learners' experience, appropriate to the attendant outcome, and to build upon the knowledge the learners' bring to the learning environment.

Some examples of common learning activities that may be used under this philosophical approach include free form class discussion, panel discussion, formal debate followed by questions and answers, inquiry based student presentation, faculty and/or guest presentations, evaluative and interpretive tasks, group work, and observation and interview experiences outside the classroom. These example represent only a handful of the most commonly used learning activities, and are not intended to represent the full scope of activities an educator in this program might use to facilitate learning in the classroom.