Relationship between self-regulation and cognitive activity in education environment

Self-regulation, being a complex multicomponent phenomenon of internal mental activity, is one of the important students’ resource in the education process. The literature on self-regulation shows a variety of approaches, one of which comes from the scientific school of O.A. Konopkin. It was later developed in the original concepts of self-regulation by V.I. Morosanova and A.K. Osnitsky. The empirical study was aimed at finding answers to several questions. First, to determine the level of self-regulation of senior high school students. Second, to identify the features of regulatory processes and personal qualities. Third, to discover the features of relationship between self-regulation and cognitive activity, and fourth, to determine the predictive resource of self-regulation in academic performance. The authors of the study used the questionnaire created by V.I. Morsanova called "Style of Self-Regulation of Behaviour" (SSRB). There were also applied methods for diagnosing the motivation of studying and emotional attitude to learning, and academic performance. The study revealed that in a group of students with a high level of self-regulation, achievement motivation prevails and their academic achievements are significantly higher. In addition, it is noted that the achievement motivation is positively correlated with both the level of self-regulation and cognitive activity. The results showed that students with a sufficiently high cognitive activity are diagnosed with anger and anxiety. Therefore, the low level of self-regulation of senior high school students prevents them from achieving goals in academic performance. The present study proves that conscious self-regulation is a process that determines the cognitive activity of students.