Sentence:  Everyone was unwinding after the weekly tensions of our final year—from the professor before us (who would <WSD>Socratize</WSD> in a bantering, conversational tone with teenagers) to the gang at the back of the room, half-heartedly following the dialogued chain of ideas in this majeutical formulation. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To explore an idea by probing questions.