In the era of contemporary society, which revolves around the fast information science revolution, the pupil is no longer just an observer in the educational process but rather an active constructor of one's own knowledge. Current didactic theories proclaim teaching, in which the teacher is an instructor and a facilitator, and as such should encourage and help develop the pupil's learning strategies constructed on the basis of intentionality, self-established and self-organized learning. In this explorative research the possible influence of heuristic-methodological instructions on encouraging metacognitive ability is explored, i.e. the metacomponent of elementary school fourth grade pupils. Our goal was to determine to what extent it is possible to encourage the pupil's metacognitive strategies with didactic-methodological strategies based on heuristics and its methods (discovery learning, project method, problem method, work in small groups, teaching in nature). The empirical research was conducted through an experimental program, realized in the experimental group of pupils, while the control group worked in unchanged conditions. In accordance with the gathered research results, we compared the differences between both groups and came to a conclusion that a statistically significant difference in the results occurred, i.e. through the research of the metacognitive abilities of the experimental group pupils in the segments which referred to elaborating and connecting previously acquired knowledge with new, overcoming work difficulties, checking correct answers, method of checking the validity of the answers and determining the main concepts and ideas from the text.