P.O.W.E.R. Learning: Strategies for Success in College and Life

Robert S. Feldman still remembers those moments of beingoverwhelmed when he started college at Wesleyan University.  “I wondered whether I was up to thechallenges that faced me,” he recalls, “and--although I never would haveadmitted it at the time--I really had no idea what it took to be successful atcollege.”

That experience, along with his encounters with many students during his ownteaching career, led to a life-long interest in helping students navigate thecritical transition that they face at the start of their own collegecareers.  Professor Feldman, who went onto receive a doctorate in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison,teaches at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he is AssociateDean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Professor ofPsychology.  He directs POWER Up forStudent Success, the UMass first-year experience course for incoming students.

Professor Feldman’s proudest professional accomplishment is winning the CollegeOutstanding Teaching Award at UMass.  Healso has been named a Hewlett Teaching Fellow and was Senior Online InstructionFellow.  He has taught courses at MountHolyoke College, Wesleyan University, and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Professor Feldman is a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science. He is a winner of a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar and Lecturer awardand has written some 100 scientific articles, book chapters, and books.  His books, some of which have been translatedinto Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Chinese, include Improving the First Yearof College: Research and Practice, Understanding Psychology, 8/e, andDevelopment Across the Life Span, 4/e. His research interests encompass the study of honesty and truthfulnessin everyday life, development of nonverbal behavior in children, and the socialpsychology of education.  His researchhas been supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health andthe National Institute on Disabilities and Rehabilitation Research. 

With the last of his three children completing college, Professor Feldmanoccupies his spare time with serious cooking and earnest, but admittedly unpolished,piano playing.  He also loves totravel.  He lives with his wife, who isan educational psychologist, in a home overlooking the Holyoke mountain rangein western Massachusetts.