Learning Skills: The Work of Learning How to Learn

"So what should you do when you're stuck?" asks one of Proctor’s Learning Specialists. "Ask for help," the student replies. This simple exchange, lasting just a few seconds during a one-hour Learning Skills block, reflects the pedagogical approach that occurs on the top floor of the Fowler Learning Center during each of the five Learning Skills or Learning Lab blocks daily. 

During a typical Learning Skills block, a Learning Specialist works with students through math concepts, Spanish sentence structures, and essay revisions. What stands out is not the content being taught, but rather the way questions are shaped.

Metacognition allows students to move from passive recipients of instruction to active managers of their own learning. It includes building awareness (How do I learn best? What distracts me? What's my stress level right now?), monitoring in real time (Am I making progress or wasting time? Is this strategy working? Do I actually understand this, or just think I do?), and evaluating after the work is done (What did I do that worked? What would I do differently next time?). When that Learning Specialist asks, "So what should you do when you're stuck?" they are cultivating metacognitive awareness – helping the student develop the habit of noticing when they are stuck, understanding what being stuck means, and knowing what resources to access. It is the difference between a student who keeps staring at a confusing math problem, hoping understanding will magically appear, versus a student who thinks: "I'm confused. What specifically don't I understand? Who or what could help me figure this out?"

Between these moments of focused work, students navigate their planner routines, understanding that their phones have to be far away in charging "sleeves" at the threshold of the room for them to focus best, and wrestle with the challenges that all adolescent learners face – organizing their workload, thinking ahead, and executing plans – all while their brains are still developing the very neural architecture to make all of these tasks seamless.

The Foundation of Learning Skills

In a history compiled by former Director of Communications Chuck Will, the origins of Proctor's Learning Skills program trace back nearly ninety years, to an era when boys first received assistance with homework at kitchen tables in faculty apartments as early as 1937. What began informally became intentional by 1945, when Dr. Samuel Orton – the nation's preeminent leader in the study of dyslexia – began referring students to Proctor. Orton's revolutionary insight was deceptively simple: reading disabilities have a neurological basis and are not a character flaw or intelligence deficit. His phonics-based, multisensory approach, developed alongside Anna Gillingham, fundamentally changed how we understand and treat learning differences.

Through former Head of School Lyle Farrell's partnership with Orton, the school's mission crystallized around supporting young dyslexic boys. What started at kitchen tables evolved through decades of leadership, from David Fowler's tenure when John Schoeller led the program's professionalization in the 1970s and attracted trained Learning Specialists, through Steve Wilkins' era (1995-2005) when Learning Skills evolved from primarily “remediation” to emphasizing academic strengths, self-awareness, and self-advocacy. Today, under Head of School Amy Smucker's leadership, the program continues to adapt while maintaining its core conviction: any student, with the right support, can find success in any area and learn to learn.

The Neuroscience Connection

Former Head of School Steve Wilkins made this work a primary focus during his 2024-2025 tenure as Interim Head of School, indulging what he termed his "professional obsession" with helping students and teachers understand how the human brain learns. His work with Proctor faculty is ongoing, with a particular focus on the Learning Skills Department this fall.

"Today's neuroscience suggests that educators can literally change the way that students' brains function."
~ Steve Wilkins (Head of School, 1995-2005, Interim Head, 2024-2025)

This is not a metaphor. Through intentional practice and scaffolding within a student's zone of proximal development – that sweet spot where work is neither too easy nor impossibly hard – neural pathways strengthen and new connections form. As Learning Skills Chair Jennifer Fletcher explored in the "Learning and the Brain" blog post series, emotions play a crucial role, and thinking and emotions are forever connected. When students survey the challenges before them – academic, athletic, creative, social – and determine that the task is worthy of the effort, something shifts. The brain's reward systems engage. Learning becomes not just possible but joyful.

Learning How to Learn

Contemporary research validates what Proctor has long practiced. In their book The Disengaged Teen, education researchers and writers Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop identify what they call "Explorer mode" – students who are engaged not just academically but who possess agency, the ability to set meaningful goals and marshal resources to meet them. These students do not simply follow assignments and instructions; they own their learning. They understand how they learn best, what distracts them, and what motivates them. Critically, they're not afraid to ask for help along the way.

The contrast is "Passenger mode" – students going through the motions, waiting to be told what to do next, lacking the metacognitive skills to coach themselves as learners. Consider what we're asking of adolescents making this transition from passive to active learning. As Ellen Braaten, associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, notes in an interview with Anderson and Winthrop, we are "asking kids to do things that they're not developmentally ready to do" – organizing their environment, thinking ahead, being flexible in problem-solving, taking in information quickly, and doing all this simultaneously while managing multiple passwords, systems, and learning platforms. The decline in unstructured free play means many young people never develop executive function skills through their most natural pathway: play. Learning Skills addresses this gap head-on. What looks like simple homework help is actually something far more sophisticated. They are teaching students how to learn.

In any given Learning Skills block, this neuroscience becomes visible. When a student struggled with a math problem about percentage increases, the Learning Specialist did not explain or correct, instead offering the question: "If you had 100% of something, plus an additional 2%, how would you put that together?" The question prompted thinking, not memorization. When the student got lost in reading a Spanish text, they asked, "Tell me what it means in English," first accessing the existing knowledge and skills the student already had before building on it. This is the art of scaffolding – providing just enough support that students can work in their zone of proximal development, then gradually removing supports as capacity grows.

Beyond content, the scaffolding extended to executive functioning skills. In another moment, a specialist guided a student through exam planning: “How many hours do you think you want to put into this and when do you think you can do it?” – not dictating a plan but helping the student create their own. Academic support programs at Proctor emphasize student agency – not just the ability to complete tasks, but to set meaningful goals, navigate obstacles, and marshal both intrinsic motivation and external resources to succeed. This philosophy is enacted in dozens of micro-moments, and the message embedded in these interactions was that students, with the support of adults, have the capacity to be successful. Learning Specialists are there to help them develop the strategies to do so.

The Human Element in a Digital Age

As we stand on the edge of an educational landscape transformed by AI and other rapid advances in technology, Learning Skills offers something technology cannot replicate – human relationships. Yes, AI tutors will improve. Yes, adaptive learning platforms will become more sophisticated. But the work happening on the top floor of the Fowler Learning Center builds something beyond academic skills. Learning specialists ask: "What do you think is holding you back in this class? What kind of support would be most helpful for you?" This work builds trust, models vulnerability, and demonstrates that asking for help is not a weakness.

Research on "high-impact tutoring" shows that structured, frequent sessions with consistent adult support accelerate learning. Liz Cohen, who studied 10,000 school district tutoring initiatives, also observes: "Young people in America are very hungry for meaningful relationships with adults." This is not just about academic intervention, but rather connection – someone who knows you, sees you, and believes in your capacity to grow. The percentage of Learning Skills students succeeding in college-level courses at Proctor speaks to one metric of the program’s effectiveness. But perhaps the most important measure is students learning to believe in their capacity to change and become the architects of their own learning.

What began around kitchen tables in faculty apartments has evolved into a nationally recognized model of integrated academic support. This pedagogy has advanced through decades of refinement, and the neuroscience of learning has deepened our understanding of everything from neuroplasticity to the role of emotions in learning. Technology has transformed some of how we work. But the fundamental principle endures – with the right questions, the right support, and the right relationship, any student can learn not just content, but how to learn. What Learning Skills provides students is not the answer to every future problem, but the belief that with the right support and strategies, they can find success. This is the timeless work of Learning Skills.

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