by Julie Clark, Clare Hemenway, Denny St. John, Georgia
Tolias, and Roozbeh Vakil
This article reports on one study of a research and curriculum development progr am in abstract algebra. This instructional program, which is based on a constructivist learnin g theory and places special emphasis on computer programming activities and cooperative learning gr oups, was described in the article ``An Abstract Algebra Story" in the March, 1995 issue o f this journal. Data in the form of interviews was collected from students in this program, as w ell as from students who took standard lecture-based abstract algebra courses at the same un iversity. Most of the interview questions were content-based, but the students were asked about their overall impression of the course. The responses to this question favored the computer/ cooperative learning approach in many ways, even though the content of this course was at le ast as rigorous and demanding as that of the more traditional courses.