The article examines the conceptual foundations of preparing future pedagogue-psychologists to support students’ cognitive engagement. The study analyzes key theoretical approaches, including cultural-historical theory, motivational frameworks, constructivist views of learning, and models describing cognitive activity, which together provide a basis for identifying factors that influence students’ engagement with academic tasks. Six core factors-cognitive strategy knowledge, metacognitive competence, autonomy-supportive instruction, instructional design skills, assessment literacy, and psychological and relational awareness-were systematized through a comparative review of theoretical and empirical sources. The analysis shows that teacher readiness to support cognitive engagement develops through the combination of cognitive, motivational, and relational processes present in classroom instruction. The findings underline the importance of integrating these components into teacher education programs to strengthen future specialists’ ability to recognize engagement-related behaviors and organize learning environments that encourage sustained cognitive activity. The results offer a conceptual framework for improving teacher preparation in pedagogical psychology and provide directions for further research on the development of engagement-supportive competencies.