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The need to cultivate students' use of metacognitive strategies in critical thinking has been emphasized in the related literature. The present study aimed at examining the role of metacognitive strategies in critical thinking. Ten university students with comparable cognitive ability, thinking disposition and academic achievement but with different levels of critical thinking performance participated in the study (five in the high-performing group and five in the low-performing group). They were tested on six thinking tasks using thinkaloud procedures. Results showed that good critical thinkers engaged in more metacognitive activities, especially high-level planning and high-level evaluating strategies. The importance of metacognitive knowledge as a supporting factor for effective metacognitive regulation was also revealed. The contribution of metacognitive strategies to critical thinking and implications for instructional practice are discussed.A critical thinker is one who applies appropriate skills and strategies to achieve a desirable outcome (Halpern 1998). Critical thinking demands strategic use of cognitive skills that best suit a particular situation, as well as an active control of one's own thinking processes for well-justified conclusions. Psychologists and educators strive to understand what differentiates those who think critically and those who fail to do so; however, it has not been an easy task due to the complexity of human thinking processes. As a result, tests of critical thinking usually measure the end-results of thinking processes, i.e., the quality of Metacognition Learning (2010) 5:251-267

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