Attitudes Toward Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: A Mixed-Methods Study

This study aims to determine preservice teachers’ attitudes toward artificial intelligence and their metaphorical perceptions regarding AI. The sample of the study consisted of 721 preservice teachers studying in various departments of the faculty of education at a state university in Turkey. The convergent parallel design was used in this study. A descriptive survey model was employed for the quantitative part of the study. The quantitative findings revealed that participants generally had a moderately positive attitude toward artificial intelligence, with significant differences according to gender, grade level, taking an artificial intelligence-related course and participation in artificial intelligence-related training programs. In the qualitative part of the study, a phenomenological design was employed to examine the participants’ metaphorical perceptions. The participants produced 176 different metaphors related to the concept of artificial intelligence, with the most frequent ones being “assistant”, “human”, “magic wand”, “brain”, “friend”, “encyclopedia”, “medicine”, “library”, and “teacher”. These metaphors were categorized into 19 different categories with the prominent ones being “Supportive Role/Guidance”, “Knowledge/Memory”, “Magic/Mystery”, “Human Nature”, “Social Role/Identity”, “Function/Mechanism”, “Threat/Harmful Potential”, and “Development/Learning”. Based on the findings, integrating artificial intelligence into the curriculum at all educational levels are recommended to keep pace with contemporary educational demands.