This article discusses anthropology's conception of classic fieldwork during a period of intense educational reforms in Danish universities. We trace widely held conceptions of fieldwork among master's students of anthropology and the efforts they make to live up to what they assume to be classic fieldwork. We argue that fieldwork, when part of an educational programme, needs to be reframed as teaching-based research. Acknowledging other current and inspiring experiments in diverse university settings, we focus on how cooperative reflection during fieldwork can model guided fieldwork without losing the characteristics that make fieldwork a valuable learning experience. Experiments with online peer feedback and focused supervision during fieldwork suggest that the fieldwork experience, the quality of the empirical material and the analytical process can be improved significantly.