Methodological foundations for the study of information, misinformation, and disinformation problems in education and pedagogy

The information society, the digital transformation of education, the developments in the system of continuing education, and information wars have caused a number of problems related to information, misinformation and disinformation in education, pedagogy and related fields. To resolve these problems, it is necessary to choose the appropriate methodological foundations. Currently, some scientific issues related to information, misinformation and disinformation in education are being investigated. The aim of the article is to select the scientific approaches to study information, misinformation and disinformation problems in education and to determine the potential of the approaches selected. To achieve this aim, the authors identify typical problems in education and pedagogy related to information, misinformation and disinformation via scientific literature analysis and substantiate the criteria to select the appropriate methodological foundations. The criteria identified allow a theoretical substantiation and structuring of methodological approaches by levels of research. The approaches chosen are synergistic, informational, axiological, cybernetic, and activity-based ones. The value of each approach to solve the problems of information, misinformation and disinformation in education is determined. The synergetic approach allows exploring the contradictory phenomena of information and misinformation or disinformation based on the concepts of positive and negative synergy. The phenomenon of anthroposynergism underlies the study of aspects of human interaction with information in education. The approach makes it possible to study phenomena in education and related fields that provide a synergistic effect. The informational approach serves as a methodological basis to research the relationship between information and the content of education; information support and information resource of education; information movement. The axiological approach considers information as a value and allows us to present information processes in education from the standpoint of personal values of education participants. In terms of the cybernetic approach, the information support of education is presented as a management function, and the information resource is presented as a means by which other problems in the field of education and the theory of pedagogy are solved. The activity approach forms the basis for studying the interaction of all the subjects of education and education management with information flows. The corresponding principles are structured and formulated as an integral set of rules that allow exploring the problems of information, misinformation and disinformation in education: the principle of dialectical unity of positive and negative synergy of information / misinformation / disinformation in education; the principle of anthroposynergism; the principle of humanism; the principle of self-organization of information in education, education management; the principle of asymmetry; the principle of homeostasis; the principle of interdisciplinarity of information in education; the principle of sequential modeling; the principle of effective communication and feedback; the principle of controlled evolution; the principle of activity as the goal and the means of education.