The purpose of this study was to identify, analyze, synthesize and evaluate research papers aimed at the application of metacognitive strategies to improve the quality of learning in secondary school students. This document is a systematic mapping (SM) which offers a comprehensive overview of the methods, indicators, strategies, techniques and instruments used in those research. A literature review was conducted in seven widely recognized databases in the educational and scientific community worldwide; 722 documents were found and from these 19 were relevant to the search objective. 57.89% applied metacognitive strategies as follows: 15.78% to learning quality 42.10% to learning processes or skills; 31.57% on learning quality, and 10.5% on learning processes without the intervention of metacognitive strategies. The results confirmed the application of metacognitive strategies such as: planning, monitoring, evaluation, underlining, self-evaluation, modeling, thinking aloud, consciously choosing, reflection and reflecting on learners 'ideas, keeping journals, predictions, among others. Learning processes such as: motivation, understanding, transferring, evaluation, selective attention, knowledge association and advanced organization were intervened. Indicators of the learning quality were also used: potential, processes, results, the academic performance, peer evaluation, intrinsic motivation, understanding, knowledge construction indicator, teacher's expectation indicator, the Students' growth indicator, the superficial level of learning, and the deep level of learning , the level of learning achievement. There was a knowledge gap in the application of metacognitive strategies to improve the learning quality of secondary school students, which confirms the need to conduct studies with this type of classroom interventions. [For full proceedings, see ED621941.]