One of the killers in flying is the turn from base leg on to approach stall. So I think as an exercise set it up with 30 of flap, 1500rpm, flying straight and level just hold altitude and wait. Min altitude 4000 agl and an instructor.
Due to the spiralling airflow of the prop normally one wing will stall first. The objective to correct with less than 500ft of height loss, because if not, your dead on a real approach. The idea is to teach how to recover and keep the speed up in the circuit add 4 kt for the turns. The first time I did this in a 150 the instructor never told me what would happen and I lost 1500 ft but only 150ft on the next try. Spin entry to the right over corrected spin entry to the left, while winding up the flaps and closing the throttle.
So I think it is an important exercise and teaches even the 152/172 can bit.
Note in a 172 with passengers in the back, it may not be so much of a pussy cat, pushes the CG back and ups the weight, which affects stall speeds and pitch sensitivity.