Apache,
I can think of lots of times where good instructional technique is to let the student fly a larger than normal circuit - at least until the students capacity has caught up with what's happening in 'real-time'. eg. upgrading to a faster or more complicated type / at times during early circuit training.
And, no, I'm not saying that the student should be allowed to stay there through out his/her training, but that the extra time given can provide enormous advantages to the learning process. It can allow the poor sod operating at 110% in a foreign, noisy, cramped, often uncomfortable environment, the time to 'catch up' & match his or her mental processes to workload.
Of course the instructor must ensure that the student learns to fly a 'correct' circuit (whatever that might be). But to push a student into a smaller circuit before he or she has the capacity to cope with the workload in the compressed timeframe can, & does, overload him or her and reduce learning effectiveness.
I'm not discounting off-loading some of the workload onto the instructor either. Both methods are part of an instructor's tools-of-trade
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Fascinating how scientists & research engineers have managed to make aircraft that all use the same laws of aerodynamics all over the world.........Has anyone thought to tell the CAA?