While known for its focus on social justice, this commitment to engaging the larger world with education is just one element of what makes Jesuit education unique. Loyola Chicago's approach to education is rooted in the Ignatian pedagogical paradigm is a method of teaching and learning that that traces its roots to the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola and has been evolving and growing through the practice of Jesuit education for centuries.

The Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm encourages the learner to engage in a constant process of ongoing critical self-reflection that places the material they are learning in constant dialogue with the world and community outside the classroom. It begins learning with asking questions of context - of the learners, the subject material, and reality of the community in which the education is occurring. From there, education connects to experience - actively seeking to concretize what is being learned and ensure that concepts are not learned apart from context or compassion. Students then reflect on what they have encountered, engaging in a process of moral and intellectual formation. Students pay attention to how what they are learning interacts with their own deeply held values, noting points of conflicts, congruence, or cultivation. From this point, learners ask themselves what actions their learning is calling them to - what is the implication of what they are learning both for their own lives and the larger world. Ignatian Pedagogy believes that all knowledge has a telos outside itself and part of the education process is developing this. Finally, the paradigm closes with evaluation - assessing the learning process to encourage accountability and innovation, before beginning it again.