Narratives as a Didactic Resource in the Social Sciences to Teach Sustainable Development: A Study with Primary Education Students

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The research is interesting and can contribute to the literature on sustainable development goals. However, it has several limitations that I discuss briefly below.

The general objective of this study must be revised and reformulated. How does it contribute to improving university teaching through research that adopts a study throughout an academic year, without specifying the duration (annual-semester) and the student body of a single university year (4th) What appears to be two subjects of the same course, therefore, the subjects of the sample may be the same. Could you clarify? The specific objectives are not connected with the general objectives.

It is advisable to extend the study to other universities in the Andalusian or national environment with the same subjects and degree studies.

In addition, it states that the educational performance of undergraduate students will improve if teaching on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is adapted to their learning styles, but does not provide empirical evidence. What is the empirical evidence on the effectiveness of this intervention? Therefore, what are the new contributions of this research to the field of study?

The cross-sectional nature of the data set is the main limitation of the study, although there are other limitations related to the methodological design adopted, such as the evaluation quality of the measurement instrument of the variable and the process of administration of the instrument. In this sense, it would be necessary to provide the psychometric properties of the instrument in the current study, both reliability (Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's Omega) as validity, it is i.e. internal structure, satisfactory levels of validity, and instrument reliability. In addition, a more detailed description of the procedure used to administer the instrument provides information on the response rate. Check for outliers, missing data, linearity, and normality assumptions, and provide analyzes and results. How were the atypical cases treated, the lost and influential cases? What analyzes were carried out to verify the distribution and linearity of the data? What were the results? Which are the non-parametric (abstract) statistics that have been performed?

The discussion and conclusions should be improved based on the changes required as well as limitations and future research. And especially, name the current legislation on educational matters at the national and international levels.

Author Response

NARRATIVES AS A DIDACTIC RESOURCE IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES TO TEACH SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A STUDY WITH PRIMARY EDUCATION STUDENTS

ANSWERS TO REFEREES

REFEREE 1

The paper was well written; If the article has been revised according to the following comments. Here are the comments as following:

1. Need a proof reading since there are many language and grammatical mistakes detected throughout the article.

Firstly, we would like to thank reviewer 1 for their suggestions, as we believe that they have been very useful in improving our work.

2. Please change SO2 - "to estimate" to "to assess"

Following the reviewer’s suggestion, we have change SO2 – “to estimate” to “to assess”.

3. Need more discussion in the introduction on the practices of education for sustainable development in primary schools

A review of the discussion in the introduction has been made, seeking a better connection of the ideas expressed in the different paragraphs, so that there is a first reference to the importance of working on the teaching-learning of environmental education through classroom practices as an ideal way of forming a critical citizenship that seeks social justice and rethinks the traditional system, among others. Therefore, we explain how from the subjects of Didactics of Social Sciences and Didactics of the Environment practices are carried out in the classroom. but in a more theoretical or conceptual way and with a global approach, as opposed to the possibility of developing actions on a local scale that would keep students from being frustrated by the complexity of the envi-ronmental crisis that we fase.

We consider that the different changes introduced throughout the work have made the discussion in the introduction on the practices of education for sustainable development in primary schools more coherent.

4. The research limitations need to be highlighted before the conclusions.

Following the reviewer’s suggestion, we have elaborated the limitations of the research and incorporated them before the conclusions.

5. The conclusions can be changed into Recommendations & Conclusions in which the author(s) may recommend on how the process of learning and teaching for sustainable development education/subject can be improved in primary schools based on the findings of the study.

We have revised the conclusions section and incorporated some recommendations that may be useful to improve the teaching and learning process of environmental education. We also consider that these recommendations are implicit in some of the ideas in the conclusions.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper was well written; If the article has been revised according to the following comments. Here are the comments as following:

1. Need a proof reading since there are many  language and grammatical mistakes detected throughout the article.

2. Please change SO2 - "to estimate" to "to assess"

3. Need more discussion in the introduction on the practices of education for sustainable development in primary schools.

4. The research limitations need to be highlighted before the conclusions.

5. The conclusions can be changed into Recommendations & Conclusions in which the author(s) may recommend on how the process of learning and teaching for sustainable development education/subject can be improved in primary schools based on the findings of the study.

Author Response

NARRATIVES AS A DIDACTIC RESOURCE IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES TO TEACH SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A STUDY WITH PRIMARY EDUCATION STUDENTS

ANSWERS TO REFEREES

REFEREE 2

The topic of the text is interesting. Sustainability is the area that should be presented as soon as possible and, what more, systematically.

The text presents the result and impact of one-time experience that indicates the possible effectiveness of a systematic approach – in this case, in a group of trainee teachers who are to influence the learners, and future generations.

Justification of the target group – research presenting the positive impact of using storytelling in groups of young learners can be strengthen as the authors suggest that the positive experience of learners with the activity should and can be transferred into the teaching young learners.

Below, I bring several suggestions to the authors:

Line 116 Organic Law 8/2013 of December 9, 2013, for 116 the improvement of educational quality (LOMCE) – I suggest the authors specify it is the Spanish Law (as they expect international readers)

Firstly, we would like to thank reviewer 2 for their suggestions, as we believe that they have been very useful in improving our work. Following the reviewer’s suggestion, we have specified that it is Spanish Education Law.

Lines 152-154 – state the hypothesis. This should be a verbally neutral assumption, testable statement, or prediction about the study result. Similarly, stating the goals of the study should reflect some impact of a specific variable (GO2 as it is stated in the educational aim, the personal objective of the teachers (probably researchers this time) – reformulating the GO – to find out the influence of… on critical awareness (in case this is the case) – or simply not to state it as the aim of the research study

Following the reviewer’s suggestion we have introduced the appropriate changes commented by the reviewer to give greater coherence to the research hypothesis and the objectives of the text.

ITEMS 11 and 12 (table 1) are quite influential and might have influenced the respondents to offer positive responses. Generally, I believe that every activity that forces learners to think critically and presents clear arguments leads to the development of the teachers' personality.

The study itself studies the opinions of the teachers-to-be and not the real impact on the primary school learners, and this should be highlighted in a text.

We believe that throughout the text we emphasize the idea that the study shows the opinions or perceptions of teachers in training after carrying out classroom practices on environmental education. However, we have made some changes to reinforce this idea.

To increase readability and understanding of the text, the authors might consider using the terms trainee teachers (they use), pre/service teacher or teachers-to-be to indicate they do not deal with teachers in practice or learners.

Following the reviewer’s suggestion, we have used the term teachers-to-be to throughout the text.

The formulation of Item 7 in table 2 is slightly problematic to understand I7 -statement written in future tense using 2nd person singular (what kind of answer is expected – who is the statement about)

Following the reviewer’s suggestion we have changed the verb tense of the question in item 7 to improve the comprehension of the question.

Final paragraph – "writing of stories proved to be of great benefit to these trainee teachers, despite the rigorous planning work involved ". The last paragraph is one of the most important and concludes, summarises the results. The title sazs about the narrative, the keywords section includes the term storytelling, and in the final paragraph authors mention "writing of the stories." 

Following the reviewer’s suggestion we have changed the term “writing of stories” to “storytelling”.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The topic of the text is interesting. Sustainability is the area that should be presented as soon as possible and, what more, systematically.

The text presents the result and impact of one-time experience that indicates the possible effectiveness of a systematic approach – in this case, in a group of trainee teachers who are to influence the learners, and future generations.

Justification of the target group – research presenting the positive impact of using storytelling in groups of young learners can be strengthen as the authors suggest that the positive experience of learners with the activity should and can be transferred into the teaching young learners.

Below, I bring several suggestions to the authors:

Line 116 Organic Law 8/2013 of December 9, 2013, for 116 the improvement of educational quality (LOMCE) – I suggest the authors specify it is the Spanish Law (as they expect international readers)

Lines 152-154 – state the hypothesis. This should be a verbally neutral assumption, testable statement, or prediction about the study result. Similarly, stating the goals of the study should reflect some impact of a specific variable (GO2 as it is stated in the educational aim, the personal objective of the teachers (probably researchers this time) – reformulating the GO – to find out the influence of… on critical awareness (in case this is the case) – or simply not to state it as the aim of the research study

ITEMS 11 and 12 (table 1) are quite influential and might have influenced the respondents to offer positive responses. Generally, I believe that every activity that forces learners to think critically and presents clear arguments leads to the development of the teachers' personality.

The study itself studies the opinions of the teachers-to-be and not the real impact on the primary school learners, and this should be highlighted in a text.

To increase readability and understanding of the text, the authors might consider using the terms trainee teachers (they use), pre/service teacher or teachers-to-be to indicate they do not deal with teachers in practice or learners.

The formulation of Item 7 in table 2 is slightly problematic to understand

I7 -statement written in future tense using 2nd person singular (what kind of answer is expected – who is the statement about)

Final paragraph – "writing of stories proved to be of great benefit to these trainee teachers, despite the rigorous planning work involved ". The last paragraph is one of the most important and concludes, summarises the results. The title sazs about the narrative, the keywords section includes the term storytelling, and in the final paragraph authors mention "writing of the stories."

Author Response

NARRATIVES AS A DIDACTIC RESOURCE IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES TO TEACH SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A STUDY WITH PRIMARY EDUCATION STUDENTS

ANSWERS TO REFEREES

REFEREE 3

The research is interesting and can contribute to the literature on sustainable development goals. However, it has several limitations that I discuss briefly below.

The general objective of this study must be revised and reformulated. How does it contribute to improving university teaching through research that adopts a study throughout an academic year, without specifying the duration (annual-semester) and the student body of a single university year (4th) What appears to be two subjects of the same course, therefore, the subjects of the sample may be the same. Could you clarify? The specific objectives are not connected with the general objectives.

At this point we have introduced some changes to specify that the practice was carried out during one academic year (2021-22) of the Primary Education Degree, based on two subjects of different courses: Didactics of Social Sciences (3rd year) and Didactics of the Environment in Primary Education (4th year), thus confirming that the sample of participants is varied and multiple.

It is advisable to extend the study to other universities in the Andalusian or national environment with the same subjects and degree studies.

One of the objectives of the study was to check the students' perception of environmental contents in specific subject disciplines. The particularity is that these contents and the subject of Didactics of the Environment are only taught at the University of Cordoba. We believe that this study can be a starting point so that these environmental practices can be incorporated in other areas of Specific Didactics and in the curricula of other Andalusian or national universities.

In addition, it states that the educational performance of undergraduate students will improve if teaching on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is adapted to their learning styles, but does not provide empirical evidence. What is the empirical evidence on the effectiveness of this intervention? Therefore, what are the new contributions of this research to the field of study?

Following the reviewer’s suggestion we have introduced changes to specify that empirical evidence is based on the use of traditional resources such as narratives with the use of a novel methodology for the teaching of current contents. It is based on placing students at the center of learning as the main protagonist with the aim of encouraging their critical and reflective thinking. These arguments are confirmed by observing the evolution of the students from the beginning of the practice until its completion. An example of this is the excellent grades they obtained and the answers they gave to the questionnaire as a result of their reflection and understanding of the issues raised.

The cross-sectional nature of the data set is the main limitation of the study, although there are other limitations related to the methodological design adopted, such as the evaluation quality of the measurement instrument of the variable and the process of administration of the instrument. In this sense, it would be necessary to provide the psychometric properties of the instrument in the current study, both reliability (Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's Omega) as validity, it is i.e. internal structure, satisfactory levels of validity, and instrument reliability. In addition, a more detailed description of the procedure used to administer the instrument provides information on the response rate. Check for outliers, missing data, linearity, and normality assumptions, and provide analyzes and results. How were the atypical cases treated, the lost and influential cases? What analyzes were carried out to verify the distribution and linearity of the data? What were the results? Which are the non-parametric (abstract) statistics that have been performed?

We agree with the assessment that the methodology was not very detailed. Firstly, We have reviewed the statistical data contained throughout the investigation related to the reliability of the analysis instruments. For this reason, we have introduced in the text, together with Cronbach's Alpha, McDonald's Omega calculated with the Jamovi program. We also reflect the values of the non-parametric Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Likewise, outliers and missing values were not taken into account and discarded.

The discussion and conclusions should be improved based on the changes required as well as limitations and future research. And especially, name the current legislation on educational matters at the national and international levels.

Following the reviewer’s suggestion we have introduced changes described

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear author

All recommendations have been addressed, therefore, I consider as a reviewer that the manuscript is suitable for publication.

Kind regards  

Reviewer 3 Report

The text can be accepted in the present form