(THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE BASIC CONCEPT OF MATTER AND PARTICLE)

The purpose of this study is to identify the existence of alternative framework among the form four students and their understanding on the basic concept of matter and particle. The objective of the study is to examine the existence of alternative frameworks and identify basic understanding of the concepts of matter and particles of student demographic status. The research participants for this study include 100 form four students from a school in the district of Butterworth, Penang. Instrument used in this study is a structural questionnaire that includes 19 questions and the time frame given was an hour. The basic concept of matter tested here focus on the definition of matter, interconnection between things and matter, the existence of three state of matter and the classification of matter and non-matter. Whereas the basic concepts of particle tested in this research focus on the definition of atom and molecule, arrangement of particles in the three states of matter, the difference in the movement of the particles in the three states of matter and the characteristics of particles in matter. Two types of statistics used in this study are descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistical methods used to obtain the number of the percentage of students involving frequency, achievement scores, the mean and standard deviation, while the inferential statistics using independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA. Independent samples t-test was used to identify the differences of understanding the basic concepts of matter and particles between boys and girls. One-way ANOVA was used to identify the differences of understanding the basic concepts of matter and particles between Malay, Chinese and Indian. The results of this study show the existence of alternative framework, which is one of the causes that affect the students , learning process on the basic concept of matter and particle. The results of the study also show there is a significant difference in the mean score for the concept of matter and particle among gender. The results of the study also further show there is no significant difference in the mean score for the concept of matter and particle among races. The science teachers in the school should emphasise more to make the students understand the concept of matter and particle. The teachers also should properly plan and execute appropriate strategies in order to decrease the formation of alternative framework and increase the students understanding on the basic concept of matter and particle.