Abstract: The move to nursing degrees has encouraged educators to use student centredteaching methods which develop problem solving skills, critical thinking andreflection. Kola's Experiential learning cycle is proposed as one method to developsome of these skills. The study compared the effectiveness of three differentmethods of teaching the instillation of eye drops and application of an eye pad. Asample of 73 volunteers from a Diploma of Nursing programme were systematicallyassigned to one of three groups. The modified experimental design consisted of acontrol group (tutor demonstration and student practice), Kolb's group (teachingusing the experiential cycle) and the SDL group (self directed learning using writteninformation with no tutor instruction or feedback). Participants rated their confidence,competence and the amount of thinking, analysis, guidance and problem solvingbefore and after each method.Results for instilling eye drops indicated that there were no significant differences onthe pre-test ratings and a marginally significant difference (p=0.06) on the post testratings across the teaching methods. Results for the eye pad showed no significantdifferences on pre-test or post-test ratings across the methods. Students learnt by allmethods and the differences, if there were any, were not large enough to bedetected in this study. There was a significant difference in problem solving and tutorguidance across the methods due to the low ratings of the SDL group. There was nosignificant difference in thinking, analysis or partner guidance across the methods