This article outlines the findings of a study which investigated the attitudes of 203 general and psychiatric student nurses from rune schools of nursing towards a defined number of teaching/learning methodologies All students were at the end of their first year or the beginning of their second year of a 3‐year first‐level training Data were collected using an instrument based on a semantic differential scale The findings, when compared against certain vanables, for example, gender, showed that there were very few significant differences in relation to the defined and tested methodologies Students generally showed themselves to be a homogeneous group and the findings indicate that students were more positively predisposed towards student‐centred teaching/learning methodologies Copyright © 1990, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved