The issues of development of professional thinking as a cognitive resource in the learning process in the institutes of higher education have been discussed in the article. Gnostic and transformative types of professions have been taken as an example. The study engaged one hundred and two respondents of various targeted directions of socionomic group of professions – the students of psychology and management, being either at initial or final stages of study in the institutes of higher education. It has been defined that the gnostic type does not possess any changes at the componential-elemental level, while the transformative type (the students of management) has some partial readjustments emerged in the psycho-linguistic characteristics, and presents the reflection of important aspects of development of potential of professional thinking of a manager, related to efficiency in decision-making and the role of meta-emotions. The partial interconnection of component-subsystems of professional thinking in the process of studying at higher education establishments has been identified – progressive integration of cognitive and metacognitive subsystems and transformation of correlation between personal and cognitive and metacognitive subsystems, which obtains reverse character. It has been demonstrated that actualisation of the potential of thinking as the system within the socionomic group of professions depends on the stages of education and the goal of training and professional activity.