Welcome to the SuccessTypes
Medical Education Page

The SuccessTypes Medical Education web page is part of a body of work recently recognized by the the 2010 Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award presented to Dr. Pelley at the annual meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges.  Alpha Omega Alpha is the national medical honor society dedicated to the improvement of health care through high academic achievement and gifted teaching.  Consistent with the AOA mission, this site was originally created to foster the academic success and professional growth of both premedical and medical students and of their teachers.  The SuccessTypes philosophy is best summarized as follows:

• Academic strength begins with self-awareness and motivation, not intelligence.
• Self-awareness permits the most rapid development of expert skills through Deliberate Practice (McGaghie et al, Medical Education Featuring Mastery Learning With Deliberate Practice Can Lead to Better Health for Individuals and Populations, Acad Med. 2011: 86(11)e8.)
• Students must choose between achieving minimum adequate skills and achieving expert skills.
• Those students who choose to become experts can only do so through Deliberate Practice.
• Teachers have the obligation to understand themselves as students in order to be effective teachers.  This is because teachers unconsciously teach through their own learning style.

• Competency in medical practice or any other health profession requires competent teaching because competent teaching involves Deliberate Practice.

What is a SuccessType?  Although the word “type” refers to a preference, the SuccessTypes term was not intended to refer to a preference for success.  I created the term “SuccessTypes” to refer to those students who use Deliberate Practice to balance their learning style as they develop themselves into expert professionals.

Transformation of experience (Kolb, Experiential Learning, 1983)

David Kolb observed that critical thinking skills occur best when students transform their own experience into knowledge by acting on information they are learning.  However, students often see themselves only as receivers of information and teachers often see themselves primarily as providers of information.  This is an undesirable and unproductive relationship in professional education because it is a passive relationship and creates a dependency that students must eventually overcome.  Furthermore, learning information is not the same as learning how to use information.  If this website has the effect that I intend, students will be inspired to transform themselves from receivers of information into producers of their own knowledge and teachers will be inspired to transform themselves from providers of information into "catalysts" that help students discover and decide.

SuccessTypes^TM Medical Education Page
Descriptive Menu of Major Features

SuccessTypes Survival Strategy  What to do when you are drowning in a sea of body parts with Greek and Latin names.  Also useful for MCAT and USMLE review.

SuccessTypes Learning Style Type Indicator  A guide to your psychological type explained in terms of your learning style.  I would be happy to send you the Introduction to the LSTI and the LSTI in pdf format.  Please email at the address below and let me know.

SuccessTypes in Medical Education  My updated book summarizing and extending my academic counseling methods that were developed over a decade of helping students. Also useful for teachers.  This book, when used with the prematriculation study guide, helps the student to apply Deliberate Practice to their learning style.

TTUHSC SOM Expert Skills Program  A guided self-study that prepares students to use Deliberate Practice to develop expert learning skills. Designed for incoming Texas Tech students, this is the best way for any student to spend their time after acceptance to medical school or any other health professional degree program. 

Note:  I welcome comments concerning the content, organization, and problems with links.  If you want to learn a little more about me, click on my picture for my curriculum vitae. Or, if you want, a shorter biosketch is available.