SummaryThis paper reports an investigation into the attitudes of 200 mixed secondary pupils from both rural and urban schools towards programmed instruction as a teaching method and towards geography, as a subject studied in this way. Pupils in their second year in each school were divided into experimental and control groups matched on the basis of achievement, verbal and quantitative aptitude tests. The attitudes of both groups towards geography and programmed instruction were pre‐tested by questionnaire. The groups then underwent two different learning sessions for three weeks. Despite more positive attitudes shown initially by the control group to both geography and programmed learning, the experimental group later performed better and showed more favourable attitudes towards map reading than those taught by conventional texts, this being even more so for boys. Reasons for the results and certain features of the study are discussed.