Аннотация: The article outlines the content of the study aimed at the creation and initial testing of methods for diagnosing cognitive actions in teaching children in the fifth grade. Two methods are described that are used to conduct group surveys of middle school students: the "Exchanges" method, designed to determine the formation of cognitive actions associated with the development of ways to solve search problems, and the "Inference" method, intended to determine the formation of cognitive actions associated with the construction reasoning.