Student attitudes toward science and society

Abstract

The Schwirian Science Support Scale has been utilized to study the attitude toward science and its interrelationship to society of a broad cross section of nonscience students. In spite of the development of a counterculture antagonistic toward science, this study indicates that these students appear to accept those societal values important for the support of science.

Images of science and scientists and science education

“…Other studies (for example, Mazur, 1981;Spears & Hathaway, 1975;and Williams, 1978) indicate that community attitudes to science are best described as ambivalent: the positive outcomes of science are appreciated, but there are doubts about perceived negative outcomes of scientific work.…”