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When students ask "Why are we doing this?" Many teachers speculate at their motivation: “Are they trying to distract me?” “Are they trying to get out of doing work?” “Are they challenging my authority?” are all reasonable interpretations of the question.
@garyackerman
I strongly disagree. That question is almost always an attempt at someone treying to understand the bigger picture and relevance of a new piece of knowledge. It is very important to explain why some knowledge is important and not just impart the information without relevance to the greater applicability.