Objective To explore the effect of contract learning on attitudes and behaviors of self -directed learning in bilingual teaching for nursing students .Methods Junior students whose major were international nursing were selected as the research subjects ,and combining quantitative evaluation method and qualitative evaluation method were used to evaluate the effect of contract learning in bilingual teaching . Results The scores of actively setting learning goals , seeking learning content , consciously adjusting learning strategies, and self-monitoring and evaluation were (2.33 ±0.47), (2.58 ±0.70), (2.22 ±0.33), (2.32 ± 0.51) respectively before receiving contract learning , and (2.90 ±0.44), (3.14 ±0.43), (2.88 ±0.44), (2.92 ±0.43 ) respectively after receiving contract learning , with significant differences ( t =-7.762,-5.243,-9.800, -8.347,respectively;P <0.01).And students maintain contract learning can arouse initiative learning and cultivate their ability to analyze and solve problems in qualitative interviews . Conclusions Implementation of contract learning can effectively cultivate students ’ self-directed learning and enhance their ability to design , analyze, control and evaluate learning process . Key words: Contract learning; Bilingual teaching; Qualitative evaluation method