Students learn important concepts and ways of thinking by building on their own actions and experiences. In much of higher education, the primacy of textbooks and the lectures that accompany them are inconsistent with the nature of student learning. Some students manage to learn despite the problems from this emphasis, but educators can do much better. Good teachers can shift the chemistry of their classes to build on the dynamics of the learning process and use texts and lectures from their discipline as supports for learning instead of having textbooks and lectures dominate the curriculum. This article offers an approach from cognitive science intended to help educators facilitate active student learning using these traditional disciplinary materials. The dynamic skill theory described in this article provides tools and concepts for analyzing how students move at diverse rates along various pathways as they learn a subject. This contrasts with the linear view of education that is assumed by most textbooks and lectures and that is prominent in our society, which expects progress to move in a linear and upward fashion. Texts as well as instructors must face the dynamic nature of learning. Students progress at different rates, along different pathways, and their rates and pathways vary with changes in context, support, and motivation. (Contains 7 notes and 1 resource.)