Pedagogically, the term "bottleneck" refers to a moment when students may face barriers to understanding content in the process of learning. As instructors identify "bottlenecks" within their courses, they are faced with the challenge of how to best assist students in overcoming them. Further, most instructors want to know what selected teaching strategies to implement in the classroom to increase student learning. The seven-step process of Decoding the Disciplines (Middendorf & Pace, 2004) provides a platform for helping students learn how to think instead of what to think to successfully progress through identified bottlenecks. The model also allows for instructors to collect evidence-based results of student learning that contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning, while infusing deeper meaning and learning into the classroom. The model is particularly useful for instructors who face challenges in incorporating alternative pedagogical strategies. (Contains 1 figure.)