It's sad to see so many people using the "tail dragger" American term instead of using "tailwheel".
"Taildragger" comes from a time when airplanes used skids and dragged their tails. It's not an "American" term. In the United States, the correct term is "conventional gear," referring to both tailwheel and tailskid aircraft.
So far as three-point vs. a wheel landing, which to use depends on what one feels most comfortable doing, the type of aircraft, and the conditions under which one is landing.
I don't suggest practicing braking with the tail in the air, and particularly not heavy braking. I fly conventional gear airplanes that have both powerful brakes, and reverse capability with the propeller: I don't use either when the tail is in the air. My standard practice is to perform a wheel landing with full flaps, and retract the flaps after touchdown. This encourages the tail to settle and the wing to stop flying, and after the tail has settled with full forward stick, then I bring the stick aft, brake, and apply beta or reverse.
Some airplanes don't three point well, and some do. For those starting out in conventional gear, three points are usually easier, and more familiar (very similar to doing a flared landing in a nosewheel airplane). Full-stall, three point landings are easy to learn, if one already lands properly in a nosewheel airplane.
Wheel landings in airplanes with spring gear can be a little more challenging, especially on a less than calm day, or with a pilot who uses rough technique. A useful method of transitioning someone to conventional gear involves developing solid ground-handling skills, then doing taxi work on the runway, increasing speed until a takeoff is done, then ample three point landings. When these are mastered, or at least competently learned, then one moves to nearly-three point, and rolls the nose forward into a two-point attitude for the roll-out. This is a cheat on a wheel landing, but is a training precursor to learning to wheel landing.
I should also inject here that a useful technique for learning both three-point and wheel landings is to sit in the airplane on the ramp and close one's eyes between flying sessions, envisioning the landing. Then open one's eyes and see the actually attitude and altitude of the airplane, with one's frontal and peripheral vision. Lock in the feel of sitting in the airplane in the three point attitude (the instructor should reinforce during taxi that one is seeing one's landing picture). One should prop the tail of the airplane on a sawhorse or truck bed and see what it looks like when landing two-point, as well.
When the student is ready, the two-point landing becomes a matter of half of a three point landing. Rather than flaring, the airplane gets driven onto the runway, as though one is rounding out just enough to make a level pass down the runway. Timing and feel is learned, to put the mains on the runway and roll with them, adding forward stick a little at a time as energy bleeds off in the roll-out.
One shouldn't feel constrained to 5 hours of instruction, nor should one feel that one isn't "getting it" if training takes longer. Getting the basics, and just a little learning, can enable one to takeoff and land without concern. A little learning is a dangerous thing, however, and one should take care to ensure that one is trained properly in two-point, three point, and crosswinds, as well as thoroughly mastering ground handling at slow and high speeds. Proper training make take substantially more than 5 hours, and that's just fine. Train to proficiency, not to the bare minimum.