元素概念是化學教材中極為基礎的一單元，在學習化學這門學科時不論是化合物的性質、化合物的應用或反應方程式等，一切都和元素概念有關。在國中時期學生正式接觸到元素概念，這段期間所形成的元素概念對於日後的化學基礎產生了極為深遠的影響。基於此原因，我們若能診斷中學生的元素概念，並從中分析學生的錯誤概念及其形成的原因，才能及時補救並修正學生在元素或其他化學上的錯誤概念。
本研究主要目的為(1)診斷國中學生對化學元素概念的認識。(2)比較男女生對元素概念的差異。(3)了解學生之智商與其對元素概念的相關性。(4)關於元素概念，比較學生對實驗類型的題目和課文內容型的題目之差異。
本研究採用一種『開放式』測驗工具對國中二年級學生進行測試；另採用兩種『紙筆式』測驗工具分別對國中三年級及高中一年級進行測試。
研究結果發現(1)國二、國三及高一學生對物質、週期表及某些元素存有錯誤概念。(2)紙筆式元素概念診斷工具之測試結果顯示不同性別的國三、高一學生在測驗成績上未達統計上的顯著水準，即男女生在元素概念上並無差異。(3)在分析紙筆式元素概念診斷工具時發現國三學生的智商與元素概念之間在統計上有顯著相關（p<0.01），即智力高的國三學生，其紙筆式測驗的成績也相對較高。(4)國三學生在不同題型的測驗成績，未達統計上的顯著差異；而高一學生學生則有差異。

The conception of chemical elements is one of the important foundation in chemistry curriculum, During the learning of chemistry, no matter what the properties of chemical compounds, application of chemical compounds or chemical equation, all are related to the concept of elements.Junior high school students normally get in touch with the concept of elements, and these elements conceptions have great influence on the chemical foundation in the future.For this reason, In order to correct students' misconceptions about chemical elements, we must diagnose and analyze the reasons for their misconceptions.
The purposes of this study were as follows:
(1) To diagnose the understanding of chemical elements of junior high school students. (2)To compare the difference between genders. (3)To examine the relationship of intelligence quotient (IQ) and conceptions of elements. (4)On the conception of elements, to compare between experimental test and textbook description test.
In this study, the open-ended task was conducted with junior high school students, paper-and-pencil tasks were administered to junior and senior high school students.
The major findings of this study were as follows: (1) Junior and senior school students had some misconceptions about matter, the periodic table and some elements. (2) When we analyzed the paper-pencil diagnostic task, for the conception of elements, we found no noticeable sexual differences in ninth and twelfth grades, and it shows that gender causes no discrepancy in elements conceptions. (3)In analyzing results of the element -conception diagnostic task, it was discovered that in ninth grade students IQ correlated signiticantly in statistics with students conception of the elements (p<0.01) (4)There was no significant statistical difference in different type of scores for ninth grade students.But for senior high students, they had significant difference statistically.