This study explored the development of meta-cognitive knowledge and control, the relationship between the two constructs, the types of strategy knowledge Chinese students consider valuable and comparisons with US children's knowledge of strategies at the third-grade level. One hundred and twenty students were randomly sampled from third-, fifth-and seventh-grade classes in China. Control was operationalised as comprehension monitoring and measured with CLOZE and Error Detection tasks, while awareness comprised declarative knowledge of strategies and was measured using an interview and a questionnaire. The findings indicated that knowledge of strategies and meta-cognitive control develop over time, but knowledge develops at a faster rate in comparison. The evaluation of the relationships between the constructs suggested that the measurement format affected the students' accessibility of the declarative knowledge. The Chinese students demonstrated similarities in their knowledge of useful strategies, with previewing and activating background knowledge as the most valued strategies.Working to make sense of text is not a process confined to young children learning to read, but rather an activity engaged in by expert readers as well. Even skilled readers will find themselves realising when confusions arise and selecting strategies to resolve problems until they are satisfied that they have constructed a plausible interpretation of the text. During this literacy experience, self-control is the overarching cognitive processing construct, which is critically important for learners of all levels. Effective reading requires: (a) problem solving on the run with selective use of available strategies; (b) self-monitoring of comprehension and consonance or dissonance between or among information sources; (c) evaluation of the effectiveness of the processing and the interpretation of the message; (d) a possible shift in strategies; and (e) continued monitoring until an acceptable, plausible interpretation of the content and/or agreement among message sources is achieved. Zimmerman (1989) characterises this engagement in one's own cognitive processing as 'metacognitive self-regulation'.According to Schreiber (2005), 'Metacognition, as both awareness and regulation of strategic skills, orchestrates the construction of meaning in the expert reader' (p. 219). Clearly, any investigation of literacy processing must attend to these important higher-level
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