The effectiveness of metacognitive strategies of SQP4R on critical thinking of distance education’s students

'Critical thinking' is a process used to interpret and evaluate information and experiences. But the key question is, does the impact of teaching metacognitive strategies on promoting critical thinking in distance education students? The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of teaching metacognitive strategies on promoting "critical thinking" of distance education students. The research was semi-experimental with pretest and posttest design with control group. The population consisted of all distance education students of Payam-e-Noor University of Hamadan in the school year of 1997-98. Tools include the California Critical Thinking Questionnaire (Fasion & Fasion, 1990) and meta-cognitive strategies training sessions (Nadi, Battalion & Gulpur, 2011). The results were analyzed by covariance analysis. Teaching metacognitive strategies was effective on students' critical thinking (P<0/01). Meta-cognitive strategies training can be used to increase students' critical thinking.