This was a great learning community that brought together professors from a variety of disciplines to discuss student learning “bottlenecks,” or “threshold concepts” they have to grasp in order to move into higher levels of understanding. From an educator’s perspective, it’s all about helping students make “mental moves” that allow them to think like an expert in the field. It’s about remembering that you acquired your expertise in stages and being mindful of that fact as you teach students. If you’d like to learn more, check out Middledorf and Shopkow’s book, Overcoming Student Learning Bottlenecks (ISBN: 978-1-62036-665-3).

Travis L. Martin, PhD, is founding director of the Kentucky Center for Veterans Studies at Eastern Kentucky University. He has established several nationally recognized programs to support returning veterans in higher education and the non-profit sector. A scholar of American literature, psychoanalytic trauma theory, and social theory, Dr. Martin presents frequently at conferences and universities. He has published dozens of research articles and creative short works on veterans’ issues. A former sergeant in the U.S. Army, he served during two deployments in the Iraq War (2003-04 & 2005). His book War and Homecoming: Veteran Identity and the Post-9/11 Generation is slated for publication with the University Press of Kentucky in 2022. He resides in Richmond, KY.