Identifying and Correcting Programming Language Behavior Misconceptions
summary
A curated list of dozen-plus concrete misconceptions about mutable variables, scope, aliasing and closures is paired with an instrument that detects them by running student programs through misinterpreters (broken interpreters that model each wrong semantics) and a pipeline that uses student-sourced snippets from Quizzius to create discriminating questions. The result is an automated Small Tutor that shows targeted diagnostic feedback, runs in multiple syntaxes, is hosted freely, is used by several universities, and yields measurable improvement in understanding.
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