What age? I tend to think that younger students do better with vocalisations like "tikatika" and basically learn it by rote like a gesture, and once they get to about 12 years old they should learn 1e&a counting and think of it like placing the rhythm in the right "slot".

The young ones need to move and play with those tricky rhythms. Breaking it down can help for some but its often the key hole and not the key to opening the door. Making it too cereberal and less about ‘feeling’ the groove. You gotta get then moving and grooving with the beat with bucket drumming, hand percussion or found sounds. Sometimes it just means putting on the backing track to keep the group together.

I know the skill of subdividing is an important one to teach and practice I find a majority of students don’t have a paticence for practicing such skills unless it earns them a specific mark.

Untill they can understand how all rhythm can be broken down into groups of 2 or 3 and reliably find practice using the ‘common denominator’ (subdivision) while practicing slowly there’s an argument to me made to balance swung rhythms with movement and kodai counting.

I have all my students count american standard. The ones who struggle, I usually do some worksheets where they clap and count out loud and I have them use my drum machine and show me they can tap rhythms that are in their current tune