The fields of cognitive science and education have worked hard to discover effective principles of learning with the goal of improving educational achievement. And although each has made significant advances, there has been, until today, a gap between the two disciplines. This special issue brings together researchers aiming to bridge laboratory data with real world learning practices, each providing recent and crucial information concerning the improvement of learning. The readings will allow both researchers and educators to understand strategies that would most benefit students by improving learning as well as the ability of learning to learn - or what has been defined as metacognition.