摘要：Among three levels of chemical representation, the sub-microscopic level is themost difficult to learn by students. To solve the problem, it is assumed that theconcept of the discontinuous nature of matter or particle concept should bemastered initially by students before they learn sub-microscopic representations offurther chemical phenomena. 131 junior high school students from two schoolsparticipated in this study. The study was carried out by implementing structureorientedchemistry teaching on the particle concept that was assisted by thecourseware and was continued by teaching the changing state of matter. Theresearch instruments were written tests, questionnaire, observation sheet andinterview guideline. Research data were collected before and after the use of thecourseware, as well as before and after the teaching of the changing states ofmatter. The results show that the use of the courseware increases students’understanding of the particle concept for both male and female groups. Meanwhile,particle concept only affects the students’ understanding of sub-microscopicrepresentations of the changing states of matter in general and based on gender.
关键词：courseware; discontinuous nature of matter; sub-microscopic level; states of;matter and their changes; gender
