Metaphorical Perceptions of Middle School Students Regarding the Concept of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Artificial intelligence and technologies have started to directly affect and steer humanity with the developments in science and technology in recent years. Artificial intelligence is like a living organism that thinks, decides and remembers for humans. The effects and consequences of this situation on individuals and societies are explicitly predicted and observed. However, how these results will affect our future in the long term remains a big question mark. It seems likely that countries will add artificial intelligence and coding literacy skills to their curricula in order to raise awareness of their citizens in the face of these possible questions and problems in the coming years. Nowadays, understanding artificial intelligence is key to using technology effectively. Students’ perceptions of this concept is crucial because of this. This present study aimed to determine the metaphorical perceptions of middle school students about the concept of artificial intelligence. Also, it is a qualitative study with phenomenological design principles. The study group consisted of 86 students studying in the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades of a private school affiliated to the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) of the Republic of Turkey. The students were asked to complete the sentence “Artificial intelligence is like... because...”. The data obtained from the research were analyzed by content analysis method. As a result of the research, it was determined that middle school students developed 51 different metaphors about the concept of artificial intelligence. It was found that these metaphors developed by the students were diverse and creative. The most frequently used metaphors are human (10), brain (8), robot (4), technology (3) and scientist (3). The metaphors developed by the students about the concept of artificial intelligence were separated in 4 different categories. These categories are technical/object, human/subject, nature-related and interesting/other. Middle school students perceived the concept of artificial intelligence mostly through human subjective elements. In addition, it was observed that students perceived the concept of artificial intelligence in a very broad perspective.