Meta-cognitive strategies mean applying the theory of meta-cognition of learning or as a standard to study。 The term of meta-cognitive strategies was firstly mentioned by Hosenfeld in 1977。 He did a research on children thinking process, and found that monitoring the current memory contents is one of the effective properties of meta-cognition。 (Hosenfeld, 1977)

Brown (1983) regards meta-cognitive strategies as a series of sequential processes that learners use to monitor cognitive activities, and at the same time be sure that cognitive objectives have been met with。 (Brown, 1983)