Learning Theories

Dale Schunk is a professor in the Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education, School of Education, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. From 2001 to 2011 he served as Dean of the School of Education. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Stanford University. Previously he was a faculty member at the University of Houston and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to his move to UNC Greensboro in 2001 he was Head of the Department of Educational Studies at Purdue University. His research focuses on the effects of social and instructional factors on students' cognitive processes, learning, self-regulation, and motivation, with special emphasis on the application of social cognitive theory. He teaches graduate courses in learning, motivation, and educational psychology, and undergraduate courses in foundations for learning and educational psychology. He has published over 110 articles and chapters, is author of Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective (6th edition) and (with Judith Meece and Paul Pintrich) Motivation in Education: Theories, Research, and Applications (4th edition), and has edited eight books on self-regulation and motivation. His awards include the Distinguished Service Award from the Purdue University School of Education, the Early Contributions Award in Educational Psychology from the American Psychological Association, and the Albert J. Harris Research Award from the International Reading Association. He is listed in Who's Who in America.

Chapter 1 Introduction to the Study of Learning

Chapter 2 Neuroscience of Learning

Chapter 3 Behaviorism

Chapter 4 Social Cognitive Theory

Chapter 5 Information Processing Theory: Encoding and Storage

Chapter 6 Information Processing Theory: Retrieval and Forgetting

Chapter 7 Cognitive Learning Processes

Chapter 8 Constructivism

Chapter 9 Motivation

Chapter 10 Self-Regulated Learning

Chapter 11 Contextual Influences

Chapter 12 Next Steps