Students, like children, have their favorite stories. In pursuing the questions of a discipline, the student, too, becomes a disciple. If lecture prompts the pursuit of questions, then discussion cultivates those questions. This cultivation is a labor that involves the turning over of ideas. It does not intend a single-mindedness of meaning that results in an ideological following, but rather the shared perspectives of a community of learning.
Discussion encourages students to move from the thinking of the teacher to their own thinking.
They begin to tell their own stories. It remains the task of the teacher to decide whether the thoughts of the students are consistent with the mode of thought of the discipline, whether their individual narratives amplify and animate the story of the discipline. In determining if the work of students resounds with the tradition within which that work occurs, the teacher must listen carefully to the language of discussion. That language must be the language of search. The teacher's work is to sensitize students to the characteristics of such a language so that the structure of their speech will adequately reflect the structure of the events and experiences which that speech represents.