The students on the basic studies - here specifically first semester students - have a weekly lecture for all members of the year group. The lecture contains primarily theory, as well as examples of various elements of the theory. In continuation of the lecture there are training lessons, where the year group is divided into three classes of approx. 25 students. These training lessons are conducted by the student teachers, who in part organise student presentations in the study groups and in part use relevant empirical material to help the students apply the theory analytically in practice.
The students - especially during the first semester - do not in general like to make presentations in front of the whole year or in the front of the lecturer. Student teachers are older students, which means that the students are more open to discussions and in general not so afraid to show doubt and ignorance.
It's important that the student teachers
It is important to give the student teachers a high degree of freedom to run the training lessons as they wish. This gives them more job satisfaction and it thus also gives the students more motivation when the student teachers are ‘fired up.’
It is important that the lecturer is responsible for
As a lecturer you must never undermine the authority/status of the student teachers. You should therefore avoid hinting at disagreements between lecturer and student teacher. It is better to say "Oh dear, I have not given you thorough information, I'm sorry." Ergo: It is very important that there is a common 'we' both out of consideration for the student teachers, but also for the sake of the students' confidence in us, which ultimately does have an influence on the students' learning.
This has in practice improved the academic/educational aspect over the years. As a lecturer I have received good inputs. Having two student teachers is an advantage; one who has experience and can 'train' the new - so you always have someone who has tried it before and someone new who is in training as a student teacher. This ensures there is continuity. But you should also remember to give them the freedom to do things differently.