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Content Misconceptions

Misconception: Students don’t realize that the keyword return causes Java to leave the current method.

Misconception: Students sometimes will use reserved keywords as variable names.

Misconceptions: Students have difficulty with loops partially because the motivation for looping a small number of times seems insufficient.

Distinguish the differences between print statements and return statements to help students understand that these elements are not related because this conflation can cause a lot of confusion.

Misconception: Return is a mystery to students because they may not understand that functions have an entry point and an exit point. This results in mistakes such as assuming Python will return the right thing.

Misconception: Students struggle with the jump from writing code in one method to writing code in two methods.

Explain that Strings in Java are a weird-hybrid between a primitive and an Object and as a result they can’t be modified.

Misconception: Students have difficulty understanding why a while(true) loop continues forever.

Misconception: Students have difficulty working with temporary variables in arrays.

Misconception: Students may think that assigning one array to point to another array makes a copy of that array, failing to make a distinction between shallow and deep copies.

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