Schunk’s
many activities at Taft included the National Honor Society, Honor Club, Math
Club, Business Manager, Hall Guard, Honor Club, Teacher Helper, and the Taft
Football Team. Following graduation, he enrolled at the University of Illinois
earning his BS in psychology. He went on to earn his MEd at Boston University in
1974, and a PhD in educational psychology in 1979 at Stanford University. He was
a captain in the U.S. Air Force serving from 1968 to 1974, earning the U. S.
Forces Europe: Joint Service Commendation Medal.
As an educational psychologist, Schunk teaches graduate courses in learning and
motivation and undergraduate courses in learning and educational psychology. He
has researched the effects of social and instructional variables on cognition,
learning, self-regulation and motivation. He has served on the editorial boards
of journals such as Contemporary Educational Psychology and Educational
Psychology Review. He has authored more than 120 journal articles and book
chapters on educational psychology. In addition to other books, he is author of
the widely used textbook, Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective, and
coauthor of Motivation in Education: Theory Research and Applications.
Before moving to Purdue University in 1993, Schunk taught educational psychology
at the University of Houston from 1979 to 1985 and at UNC-Chapel Hill from 1986
to 1993. He received the Albert J. Harris Research Award from the International
Reading Association (1989), an Early Contributions Award from Division 15
(Educational Psychology) of the American Psychological Association (1982), and
the Fulbright Distinguished American Scholar Award (1997).
For 10 years he was Dean of the UNCG School of Education. His awards include the
Senior Distinguished Research Scholar Award (UNCG School of Education), the
Award for Outstanding Contributions (American Educational Research Association
Studying and Self-Regulated Learning Special Interest Group), and inclusion in
Who’s Who in America.