Generations Growing Up with Future Technologies: An Examination of Primary School Students’ Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

The aim of this study is to reveal the perceptions of 4th-grade primary school students regarding the concept of artificial intelligence (AI), their thoughts on how AI can contribute to humanity, the areas they want to develop through AI, and their views on how AI will transform life in the future, and to examine the impact of socio-economic differences on these views. The study adopted a case study model, a qualitative research approach. The study group consisted of a total of 187 4th-grade primary school students attending eight primary schools in socio-economically diverse regions under the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education during the 2024-2025 academic year. Inductive thematic analysis, a qualitative data analysis method, was used to analyze the data obtained from the students. The study revealed that students mostly defined the concept of AI through concrete technological tools they encountered in daily life, generally held a positive attitude towards AI's potential to help people, and emphasized its educational and academic support and its role in assisting daily life. Themes such as robots that make people's lives easier and self-improvement/brain/mind enhancement are frequently featured.