After eight years, 240 faculty members, and countless Slack conversations across time zones, the ALiEM Faculty Incubator has come to a close. And with it, we’re celebrating the completion of something I’m incredibly proud to share: the Education Theory Made Practical book series—8 volumes, 77 educational theories and frameworks, now freely available to educators worldwide [download at ALiEM Library].

We became victims of our own success. The mentors and community members we nurtured? They’re now department chairs, deans, and program directors. The people we brought into our sandbox are now making the big decisions and shaping the future of health professions education.

This is both an ending and a celebration.

Celebrating the Final Three Volumes

These final 3 volumes—published together in January 2026—represent the culmination of everything we learned over 8 years of the Faculty Incubator.

Volume 6 covers essential teaching methods and frameworks: Peyton’s Procedural Skills Training, Backward Design Approach, Interleaving, Growth Mindset Theory, Competence by Design (Rx-OCR Coaching Method), Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, PEARLS Debriefing Framework, Learning Conversations, Deliberately Developmental Organizations & Critical Pedagogy, Actor-Network Theory. Dr. Lauren Maggio’s foreword emphasizes how open access removes barriers, ensuring educators worldwide can freely benefit from these insights.

Volume 7 progresses through the natural stages of educational program development—from instructional design (ADDIE Model, Technology Acceptance Model) through learning methodology (Advocacy Inquiry, Rapid Cycle Deliberate Practice) to assessment (Messick’s Validity Framework, Learning Analytics and Learning Curves) and program evaluation (CIPP Model, Moore’s Evaluation Framework), concluding with education sociology (Nivet’s Diversity Framework) and research (Glassick’s Criteria for Scholarship). Dr. Martin Pusic’s foreword challenges us to see the relationship between theory and practice as a two-way street—practice doesn’t just apply theory, it generates and refines it.

Volume 8 tackles contemporary frameworks essential for today’s educators: Connectivism for understanding learning in our networked digital age, Appreciative Inquiry for organizational change, Bruner’s Spiral Curriculum and Tyler Model for curriculum development, Intersectionality for understanding complex identities, Resonant Leadership, and the Master Adaptive Learner model for lifelong learning. Dr. Teresa Chan and Dr. Michael Gottlieb’s joint foreword reflects on how this series became a model for creating accessible, impactful educational resources, while my own foreword celebrates the community we built and the leaders we nurtured.

How We Got Here: The Origin Story

Back in 2016, Dr. Teresa Chan, Dr. Michael Gottlieb, Dr. Lainie Yarris, and I were dreaming up something that hadn’t been done before. We’d seen the power of virtual community with our Chief Resident Incubator, and we asked ourselves: why do faculty only get to collaborate at conferences once or twice a year? What if you could bounce ideas off a university dean or journal editor over Slack on a Tuesday afternoon, no matter where you lived?

We wanted to create a year-long, longitudinal, experiential incubator where educator-scholars could learn and grow together. Teresa, Michael, and Lainie entrusted me with their time and expertise to build something entirely new. I’m forever grateful for their partnership in creating what became a transformative experience for hundreds of educators.

As our first cohort came together, we faced a challenge: these amazing, motivated educators needed to demonstrate scholarship and national reach for academic promotion. The traditional path? Publishers hold the keys. Established scholars extend the invitations. There’s an unspoken expectation to gain experience before earning certain opportunities.

We asked: what if we created those opportunities ourselves?

That’s how the Education Theory Made Practical series was born. Our philosophy at ALiEM and the Faculty Incubator has always been to encourage autonomy and agency. We could learn while doing—writing a book together. ALiEM could provide a global platform and ISBN codes. We didn’t need to wait for traditional gatekeepers to give us permission to publish and educate.

The first volume launched in August 2017. Now, 8 volumes later, we have a complete library.

The Complete Library: Eight Volumes of Practical Wisdom

These final 3 volumes complete a comprehensive library that spans the breadth of health professions education. Each volume follows the same thoughtful structure: real-world cases that educators face, in-depth exploration of educational theories and frameworks, practical applications, and annotated bibliographies for deeper learning. The format is digestible, practical, and thought-provoking—grounded in science but written for the realities of clinical teaching.

The editors and authors across all eight volumes? A who’s who of all-stars in the medical education world. But here’s what I’m most proud of: many of them weren’t “all-stars” when they started. They were talented educators looking for community, mentorship, and opportunity. We gave them a sandbox to play in, and they redefined what was possible.

Volumes 1-5 laid the foundation with 50 essential frameworks:

• Volume 1 (August 2017) explores critical perspectives and foundational approaches: Banking Theory, Constructive Alignment, IDEO’s Design Thinking Framework, R2C2 Model for Feedback, Feminist Theory, Sociomaterialism, Logic Model of Program Evaluation, Situated Cognition, Ausubel’s Meaningful Learning Theory, Sociocultural Theory
• Volume 2 (November 2018) examines cognitive and social dimensions of learning: Modal Model of Memory, Naturalistic Decision Making, Communities of Practice, Emotional Intelligence, Social Constructivism, Reflective Practice, Self-Directed Learning, Bloom’s Taxonomy, Dual-Process Reasoning, Gaming and Gamification
• Volume 3 (October 2020) focuses on curriculum and assessment: Kern’s Model of Curriculum Development, The Kirkpatrick Model, Realist Evaluation, Mastery Learning, Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, Validity, Programmatic Assessment, Self-Assessment Seeking, Bolman & Deal Four-Frame Model, Kotter’s Stages of Change
• Volume 4 (February 2022) delves into learning psychology and competence: Cognitive Load Theory, Epstein’s Mindful Practitioner, Joplin’s Five-Stage Model of Experiential Learning, Kolb’s Experiential Learning, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Miller’s Pyramid of Assessing Clinical Competence, Multiple Resource Theory, Prototype Theory, Self-Regulated Learning, Siu and Reiter’s TAU Approach
• Volume 5 (February 2022) explores adaptive learning and development: Action Learning, Digital Natives, Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition, Organizational Learning, Self-Determination Theory, Spaced Repetition Theory, Zone of Proximal Development, Transformative Learning Theory, Deliberate Practice Theory, Constructive Developmental Framework

77 theories and frameworks over 8 volumes. Hundreds of authors and editors. All freely accessible.

Be Free to Learn

These chapters have been used in faculty development courses worldwide, including programs such as the Harvard Macy Institute. But impact isn’t measured just in prestigious adoptions—it’s measured in accessibility.

Every volume is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license. This means any educator who wants to learn can learn. No paywalls. No institutional access required. No barriers.

“Be free to learn”—we firmly believe in it.

I wish a resource like this had existed when I was developing as an educator-scholar. Something digestible that connected theory to practice. Something that didn’t require a PhD to understand but was still rigorous and evidence-based. Something that made me feel less alone in figuring out this whole “teaching” thing.

That’s what we built. For you. For everyone.

What Happens Now?

The formal Incubator ended in 2024, but look around. Our community members are still collaborating, still supporting each other, still changing how education works at their institutions. That spirit of building, sharing, and learning together—that willingness to put your work out there and learn from each other—that’s the legacy.

We hope we instilled a sense of agency, validation (because imposter syndrome is real no matter how much you’ve accomplished), and the importance of community. These 8 volumes stand as proof that you don’t need to wait for traditional pathways to make a difference.

Download the Complete Library

All eight volumes are available now in the ALiEM Library.

Download them. Share them with colleagues. Use them in your faculty development programs. Assign them to your trainees. Build on what we started.

And if you’re feeling that spark of “I wish I could do something like this”—do it. Don’t wait. Find your people. Build something meaningful together.

Thank you to everyone who made this journey possible—every founding leader, every editor, every author, every Incubator member. You didn’t just join our community; you built it.

Here’s to eight incredible years and a story that’s still being written.