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Be explicit about what direction references point when teaching about objects and references.

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  • Students have the misconception that objects "know" what methods are operating on them, rather than methods "knowing" what objects they are operating on.

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  • Content Misconceptions
  • CS 1
  • Intro Programming
External Source

"Visual program simulation in introductory programming education" by Juha Sorva, from Appendix A: Misconception Catalogue

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Other Tips By Juha Sorva

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Put debugging tips inside the test cases when you provide students with JUnit test cases to help students improve their own debugging abilities in Java.
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