Perceptions of Talented Students in Their Visual Representations about the Future World and Technology (üstün Yetenekli rencilerin G rsel Anlat mlar nda Gelece in Dünyas na ve Teknolojisine li kin Alg lar )

Purpose and significance: The present study aimed at investigating talented students’ artistic representations and perceptions regarding the future world and technology through their animated designs according to their design-based representations. A learning environment which allows talented students to use their ability, thoughts and creativity in the process of design-based instructional activities is of great interest for them. It is important for talented students to have instructional experiences which provide independent and unique learning opportunities and special application areas that allow these students to show their abilities (CfBT, 2008). Results: The participants of the study were talented elementary school students attending the Education Programs for Talented Students (EPTS) at Anadolu University. The criterion sampling method was used to select the research participants. The criterion for selecting the participants was attendance in the course of ‘Computer-Aided Graphics Design’ offered in the EPTS. The participants included a total of 35 elementary school 6th, 7th and 8th grade talented students. The study was conducted in three phases: instruction process, design process and evaluation process. Some preliminary preparations related to the design program were carried out considering that the students would use them while doing animated designs through the instruction process. The instruction phase involved an animated representation study during which the students designed their own animations. In the last phase, all the animate designs of the talented students were analyzed. The thematic analysis based on qualitative research method along with art-based inquiry was used. The thematic coding system for analyzing concepts revealed from the research data was implemented. The visual language used in pictorial representations produce messages, with its specialized codes. The degree of students’ understanding and explaining their perceptions of technology in future composes the visual codes in this research. The results obtained in the study were grouped under two themes: talented elementary school students’ ways of perception of the future world and talented elementary school students’ ways of perception of future technology.Discussion: Students’ perceptions about the future world in their visual representations and in the interview forms based on their visual representations were mostly classified under the theme of the extinction of the world, nature and universe. Students had quite unusual and original ideas about future technology. It