What are the underlying worldviews and beliefs about the role of
science in society held by students enrolled in a college-level,
general education, introductory astronomy course (Astro 101)—and
are those beliefs affected by active engagement instruction
shown to significantly increase students' conceptual knowledge
and reasoning abilities related to astronomy? To help answer
this question, we administered Cobern's (Cobern 2001) Thinking
About Science Survey Instrument (TSSI) to an Astro 101 class in
the spring 2011. The TSSI probes students' beliefs about the
relationship between science and many aspects of contemporary
society. In this paper, we analyze the 442 pre-instruction and
294 post-instruction student responses we received to the TSSI.
Many students select responses to the TSSI's items indicating
they have positive views about the role of science in society.
We also see a slight increase in the number of positive
responses pre- to post-instruction. While there are limitations
to the inferences one c