The educator/counselor as reflective practitioner is the model that underlies the knowledge base of the Teacher Education programs. Courses and experiences are geared toward developing critical thinkers who consider the multitude of factors affecting human beings in learning and counseling situations. Reflective practitioners actively consider the impacts of their actions both in the process of teaching/counseling and afterward to provide future direction. Students at Lenoir-Rhyne learn to consider the technical and practical nature of teaching/counseling, as well as the ethical and moral implications of teaching.

Lenoir-Rhyne is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) to award bachelor's and Master's degrees, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education for the preparation of teachers at the undergraduate and graduate level (NCATE) and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.