Comparison of Metaphorical Perceptions of Classroom Teachers and Candidates Regarding Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI), which has started to be used in many fields today, is also taking its place effectively in education. In this context, the aim of the study is to reveal the metaphorical perceptions of classroom teachers and pre-service classroom teachers about artificial intelligence. For this, the phenomenology approach, which is one of the qualitative research designs, was used. 124 classroom teachers and 96 pre-service classroom teachers participated in the study. Participants were asked to reveal their perceptions of 'artificial intelligence' with a metaphor and explain why using the Google Form via the WhatsApp application. The data was analysed and grouped into themes. 66 out of 114 valid metaphors created by classroom teachers for AI were different metaphors. These consisted of technology, the human mind, nature, danger, and artificial themes. It was observed that 52 of the 94 valid metaphors created by classroom teacher candidates for artificial intelligence were different from each other. Pre-service teachers see AI as a combination of technology, the human mind, nature, and danger. They also used metaphors like 'robot', 'human', 'machine', and 'helper'. Pre-service teachers used metaphors like 'brain', 'mind', and 'intelligence' more often. Classroom teachers and pre-service classroom teachers perceive AI as a source of information that can solve problems quickly, but they also perceive it as an intelligent technology that has limitations because it is a machine produced by humans.