Expert discussion teaching and classroom leadership require and reward flexibility - an appreciation for multiple viewpoints, insights, levels of understanding, and creativity. At the heart of discussion teaching is the formulation of strategic questions at different levels of abstraction. Good discussion questions provoke thinking and stimulate recall, challenge beliefs and broaden perspectives, create new paths of inquiry, rejuvenate old topics with fresh insights, uncover and gnaw away at sanctified assumptions, draw implications, and promote conclusions. Good discussion questions engender valid alternative interpretations and conclusions. There are five types of strategic questions typically used by discussion teachers.
Abstract questions seek generalizations.
Clarifying questions ask for elaborations and judgements. Guiding the discussion process takes skill and patience, as most discussions are fluid and do not move and flow in straight lines. However, not all motivation to learn or to change stems from dissatisfaction with past or current performance. These adjusted values and beliefs, combined with other content learnings, need to be applicable to learners' lives. If learning lags behind societal changes, then college education is seen as not meeting the needs of the real world.