Scout learning under former leader of patrol (7)
I believe the answer is:
explore
'scout' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'learning under former leader of patrol' is the wordplay.
'learning' becomes 'lore' (both can mean tradition or knowledge).
'under' says to put letters next to each other (in a down clue, some letters go below others).
'former' becomes 'ex' (prefix meaning former or onetime).
'leader of' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'patrol' is 'p'.
'ex'+'p'='exp'
'lore' after 'exp' is 'EXPLORE'.
(Other definitions for explore that I've seen before include "Carefully survey" , "Examine or investigate, new country or possibilities" , "Evaluate (possibility)" , "Look around; examine" , "Investigate for the purpose of discovery" .)