Psychology Department Welcomes New Assistant Professor

In an era of increasing specialization, Stemler says he admires Wesleyan for recognizing the importance of training undergraduate students to value the diversity of knowledge accumulated across different fields of study.

“There is a tremendous value to studying such topics as classical languages, hard sciences, social sciences and the arts simultaneously,” he says. “I believe that a liberal arts education results in a well-rounded person who will be capable of seeing broad perspectives on complex issues without being stuck into the kind of black and white thinking that seems to be increasingly encouraged in today’s society.”

This fall, Stemler will be teaching Psychological Statistics and anticipates teaching other courses on educational psychology, intelligence, the psychology of good and evil and the psychology of conflict resolution.

The Washington State native received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Washington and his master’s of education and Ph.D from Boston College. He completed his postdoctorial research at Yale University.

Before coming to Wesleyan, Stemler was the assistant director of the Yale University Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise (PACE) for more than three years. He also held an appointment with the Framingham State College International Educational Program, a program in which faculty members are sent to various developing countries to teach intensive, two-week courses in their area of specialization. Stemler taught courses in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.

Stemler’s research intertwines education and psychology. He studies the purposes of schooling articulated by school mission statements, historical documents, legal court precedent and other sources. His goal is to develop assessments of creativity, wisdom, social and emotional skills that meet the same rigorous standards for testing quality as conventional tests.

He presented a paper titled “Measuring teachers’ practical skills,” at the annual meeting of the International Association of Cognitive Education and Psychology in Durham, England in July; and another paper titled “Practical intelligence and teacher preparation” at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Montreal, Quebec in April.