In the not so distant past, SRG started banging on about "duty of care", basically meaning that whatever rules and regulations they may lay down, when putting them into practice, we had to ensure that what we didn't just stick to our responsiblities and leave it at that.
Personally I think they finally recognised that although the rules are there to be implemented, deviation in a given situation to avoid an incident, is acceptable.
I can see that this is eminently sensible, and I, (as the vast majority of other atcos I know), have always done the job to the best of my ability in order to make sure that things go right, not only for me, but for the pilots as well. If we did everything "by the book" the system would eventually come to a grinding halt.
Explaining this in the college environment and getting inexperienced cadets to understand the practical application, whilst they are also being told that they must stick to the rules and procedures to get through the course, would be very difficult to get across.
I would venture that it's something that trainee atco's shouldn't be subjected to until they are actually doing validation training at a unit.