Primary School Students' Perceptions of Artificial Intelligence: Metaphor and Drawing Analysis

ABSTRACT Due to the frequent use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in daily life, it is thought that primary school students acquire information about this concept from various sources. The way these sources present AI may affect students' perceptions of AI. In the study, it was aimed to examine the perceptions of third and fourth grade primary school students about AI through metaphors and drawings. This research, which was conducted with the participation of 262 students, was conducted with the phenomenological design. When the metaphors of the participants were analysed, it was determined that they produced 100 metaphors, and these metaphors were evaluated in 17 categories as humanistic feature, information source, danger, development, superhuman feature, service, source of happiness, productivity, orientation, commitment, pervasiveness, necessity, security, speed, difficulty, virtual environment and uncertainty. Accordingly, it was determined that the participants evaluated AI from many different perspectives and produced the most metaphors in the categories of humanistic feature, information source and danger. It was determined that the metaphors human, brain and living were prominent in the human characteristic category; the metaphors teacher, wise and book were prominent in the source of information category; and finally, the metaphors enemy, weapon and monster were prominent in the danger category. When the drawing findings were analysed, it was determined that 37 codes represented four categories: purpose, object, interaction and environment. In the purpose category, service, source of information, and source of happiness; in the object category, mostly humanoid robot; in the interaction category, emphasising interaction; and in the environment category, the environment was not specified. In line with the findings obtained, literature discussions were made and suggestions were made.