Picked up teaching degree and took in discussion (6)
I believe the answer is:
debate
'discussion' is the definition.
(debate is a kind of discussion)
'picked up teaching degree and took' is the wordplay.
'picked up' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'teaching degree' becomes 'bed' (BEd, Bachelor of Education).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'took' becomes 'ate' (eating is a kind of taking).
'bed' in reverse letter order is 'deb'.
'deb'+'ate'='DEBATE'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for debate that I've seen before include "Discuss through argument" , "A public discussion about a topic" , "Talk" , "Discuss; argue" , "Discussion throung argument" .)