The results from this study confirm that among the three instructional methods used to teach a topic on diarrhoea, lecture holds to be the most effective method to learn the factual knowledge. Additional data obtained through classroom observation and session evaluation also revealed students' preference of lecture method compared to the other two. Despite this, however, procedural knowledge and insights are equally or at times even more important than the mere factual knowledge in the future professional life of a nurse. The study shows that the lecture method was the least effective to learn objectives belonging to procedural knowledge and insights. Hence, using exclusively the lecture method will help to gain the factual knowledge, however, it might fail to produce a competent nurse for real life that demands both procedural knowledge and insights as well. Therefore, it is recommended that teacher in classroom should use lecture, small group discussion and 'mixed' methods (i.e. lecture coupled with small group discussion) as per the types of objectives to be addressed in the curriculum. On top of the above, it is recommended that;

• adequate time should be given to teach the topic on childhood diarrhoea,
• content should be categorized according to the factual, procedural and insightful knowledge, and teaching methods should be selected accordingly,
• teachers should be trained to conduct sessions in pair whenever required, and
• teachers should be trained on how to conduct the small group discussion effectively.

Based on the research finding, it is also recommended that the PCL nursing curriculum needs to be reviewed so that the objectives, content and the appropriate teaching methods should match to each other. Educational research of this kind not only helps to provide much needed evidence to challenge the currently held views and assumption by the faculty teacher, but also to improve the quality of the existing programme. The results obtained through this study could be utilized by the nursing faculty teachers to make decisions in relation to which method is going to work best to achieve the particular type of objectives. While most teachers have a general tendency to stick to the lecture method alone due to various causes and impart mostly the factual knowledge to the students, this might deprive future nurses of the procedural knowledge and insights, which in fact, are most relevant to their future practice. Hence, this study provides insight to the teacher that she should try to use various instructional methods as per needs of the curriculum and the needs of the future practitioner. Teachers should be encouraged to use innovative methods based on the evidence gained through the research.

A follow up study of these students to find out the impact of each method on the long-term retention of knowledge could be worthwhile later. Similarly, during community field visit when the students will have opportunity to deal with case of childhood diarrhoea in real life situation, one could assess how much each group could transfer the knowledge learnt in the classroom to the practice situation. Using both ways, one could further assess the real impact of each of the three instructional methods on the long-term retention as well as the transfer of knowledge by the students and thus compare the effectiveness of the methods to each other.

The final message is that no single instructional method is perfect while one single method as significant strength in one aspect, it could be weak in other aspects. Hence, combining two or more methods could help to ameliorate the weaknesses and at the some time facilitate, to achieve a complete goal. On the other hand, a differentiated approach in the selection of appropriate method to achieve the specific types of objectives could be another strategy to achieve the goal of the curriculum. In both cases, nursing teachers need to be trained to be competent to utilize in practice all three types of methods. This will provide than better option to select the best strategy in other to achieve the goals of the nursing curriculum.