Analyses of Student Programming Errors In Java Programming Courses

Computing students’ difficulties in understanding Java programming provided a practical context for a critical investigation of why this continues to exist. An exploratory study was conducted by Computing department staff at the National University of Samoa to investigate what were the most common errors students made in Java programming classes. Program code from undergraduate Java programming classes were analysed for errors. Errors were categorized and the frequency of occurrence also tabled. Results of the analyses were used to form recommendations to inform course development and improve teaching practices.