Tsyganov, I.Yu.

Background. A decrease in cognitive activity and the occurrence of various deficits with a general decrease in a positive attitude to learning creates difficulties in learning during the transition to high school. It becomes important to identify regulatory resources for development of cognitive activity and engagement during the period before the 9th grade, as well as at the beginning of high school.

Objective — to identify the dynamics of cognitive activity and engagement during the transition from middle to high school and to assess the contribution of conscious self–regulation of eighth graders to this dynamic in the 9th and 10th grades.

Sample. 156 eighth graders aged M=13.88; SD=0.445. In the 9th and 10th grades, repeated examinations were carried out using the same methods. As a result, longitudinal data was collected at three points.

Methods. "Attitude to learning in middle and high school" (I.N. Bondarenko, I.Yu. Tsyganov, V.I. Morosanova). "Multidimensional scale of school engagement" (T.G. Fomina, V.I. Morosanova). Questionnaire of V.I. Morosanova "Style of self-regulation of learning activity, SRLAQ-M" (V.I. Morosanova, I.N. Bondarenko).

Results. We revealed between individual differences in the trajectories of cognitive engagement, but they were not revealed for cognitive activity. It is shown that in order to successfully maintain cognitive activity and engagement in high school, it is important to achieve the maximum level of their development in the 8th grade, a year before the state exams. Longitudinal analysis has shown that school engagement is more associated with conscious self-regulation in comparison with cognitive activity, which significantly depends on external factors. Conscious self–regulation, fulfilling its resource role, on the one hand, makes a direct contribution to the level of development of these characteristics, on the other hand, prevents their sharp decline in case of difficulties or temporary failures.

Conclusion. The development of conscious self-regulation in secondary school is able to compensate for the negative trends of falling cognitive activity and engagement that occur in high school students.

Background. Examination stress is observed in the majority of students, which emphasizes the relevance of searching for psychological resources facilitating successful examination.

Objective. The study had its purpose to reveal the stress level of IT students as well as their universal and special regulatory resources for exam success.

Study Participants. The study involved 322 second-year students of a Moscow technical university specializing in information security (M_age = 19.22; SD = 4.64; 29% were female students).

Methods. The students completed 4 questionnaires on the "Testograph" platform (https://www.testograf.ru) shortly before the exam session: Self-Regulation Profile (SRP-2020), Brief Acute and Chronic Stress (BACS), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Subjective and Objective Uncertainty Stress (SOUS) scale. The data processing also included the results of the examination session.

Results. The majority of IT students demonstrated an average level of all the studied types of stress when compared to the data from the all-Russian sample. Differences in student performance are mostly related to the level of acute stress experienced during exam preparation period and to the type of academic discipline.

Conscious self-regulation makes a significant positive contribution to examination success in the profile disciplines — mathematics and programming: the higher the level of its development is, the higher the examination grades are. Significant predictors of examination success are regulatory competencies of evaluating results and programming educational activities, as well as regulatory properties of reliability and persistence.

Conclusions. Conscious self-regulation is a universal regulatory resource for examination success for students in technical specialties. Acute stress experiences can influence exam performance both positively and negatively. The study has identified the regulatory competencies acting as special resources for examination success.