As I worked through my Master of Adult Education degree program, I witnessed each of my teaching classrooms evolve into learning communities. My rationale for focusing on a collaborative, experiential, self-directed learning model is threefold. First, education experts highlight that these types of learning lead to higher levels of thought than does individual, teacher-centred learning. For example, Johnson, Johnson, and Smith (1991) and Gokhale (1995) identifies that collaborative learning fosters the development of critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity skills....