Primary School Students' Views on Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine primary school students' views on artificial intelligence. Phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The study was conducted with 25 fourth grade students. The participants of the study were determined using the criterion sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling methods. The data were collected using a structured interview form and content analysis technique was applied to analyze the data. The results of the study showed that primary school students generally associate AI with technology, science, education, art and daily life. Students define artificial intelligence as human-designed robots and tools that provide information and help in every field. Stating that artificial intelligence has both positive and negative effects, the students emphasized knowledge acquisition and increasing creativity among the positive effects, while they expressed health problems, ethical and privacy concerns among the negative effects. They also stated that the use of AI in the classroom supports learning and development but can create reliability and ethical issues. It is recommended to conduct studies evaluating the long-term effects of artificial intelligence and to better understand the perceptions of artificial intelligence of students in different age groups.