A study focused on the relationship between instructional strategies and students' reported meta-skill attainment in an adult education context. Using the data collected from 2,507 end-of-course surveys of students in the Graduate Studies in Education program at Indiana Wesleyan University, analyses were run to test for correlations between the independent variables (19 instructional strategies) and each of 10 dependent variables (10 meta-skills). The three key findings of the study were the following: (1) instructional strategies clustered into four identifiable composites, each supported by a current and credible educational theory; (2) the curriculum composite of instructional strategies strongly correlated with reported attainment of all 10 meta-skills; and (3) the assessment composite of instructional strategies correlated with reported attainment of no meta-skills. The study concluded that curriculum and assessment are essential components of any educational program and require substantial resource investment and attention to design, and that direct meta-skill instruction should be a component of courses offered in formal adult education programs. (Contains 68 references.) (Author/KC)