In this article, the concepts of self-regulated learning, learning strategies and metacognition are outlined theoretically and exemplified practically. The teachers and the students presented in the article are taking part in a research and development (R&D) work project. The focus of the article is on how the teachers implement learning strategies and goals in their teaching, and how these teaching processes are experienced by the students. Findings from the study indicate that students find strategy use and goal-directed teaching useful for learning. At the same time, this is not an unequivocal picture. The study shows that teachers have to adapt the introduction and use of strategies to the students' development levels. This conclusion is also supported by the students' utterances. (Contains 3 tables and 1 note.)