Education Dean Dale Schunk to Serve on N.C. Teacher Academy Board

By Steve Gilliam , University Relations

Contact: (336) 334-4314

Posted 11-18-09

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Dr. Dale Schunk, dean of the UNCG School of Education, has been appointed to the board of trustees of the North Carolina Teacher Academy.

He will serve on the 20-member board until June 30, 2011. The board develops plans to establish a statewide network of integrated and comprehensive professional development for teachers in school committee leadership and core content areas. This plan utilizes the resources of both state and local units.

“Dean Schunk’s appointment is evidence of the high esteem with which our School of Education is held in North Carolina,” said UNCG Provost David H. Perrin. “The preparation of high-quality teachers to meet the needs of K-12 education in North Carolina remains a high priority for UNCG.”

Schunk became UNCG’s education dean in 2001, coming from Purdue University, where he was a department head and a professor. He is an educational psychologist who has done research on the effects of social and instructional variables on cognition, learning, self-regulation and motivation. Schunk has served on the editorial boards of journals such as Contemporary Educational Psychology and Educational Psychology Review, and is author of the widely used textbook “Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective” and coauthor of “Motivation in Education: Theory Research and Applications.”

Among his honors, Schunk received the Albert J. Harris Research Award from the International Reading Association in 1989. Others include an Early Contributions Award from Division 15 (Educational Psychology) of the American Psychological Association in 1982 and the Fulbright Distinguished American Scholar Award in 1997. Before moving to Purdue, Schunk taught educational psychology at UNC-Chapel Hill from 1986-1993 and at the University of Houston from 1979-1985. He holds the Ph.D. degree from Stanford University

The UNCG School of Education is ranked number 64 among the nation’s top 100 graduate programs in education, and its counselor education program is ranked in the top 10. The school offers degrees at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels, and is one of seven professional schools at UNCG. For the 2009-2010 year, the school has an overall enrollment of 1,826 students, including 689 undergraduate student majors and 1,137 graduate majors. The latter figure includes 326 doctoral students. In addition, there are 420 students enrolled in non-degree programs for licensure or for certification.