A Review of Spiritual Development and Transformation among College Students from Jesuit Higher Education
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This well-written paper addresses an important aspect of human development, spirituality, in reference to the particularly challenging developmental period of emerging adulthood. Spiritual development is an interesting dimension but one not always addressed in younger adults. I offer the following suggestions to help the author improve and refine the paper:
State the purpose early in the paper. Lines 41-45 hint at it but it is not stated clearly.
Cite references more recent than 2001 (line 33) to support statements about where college students are residing today, in 2020.
Very nice background provided to describe the Jesuit order in reference to higher education, and how its principles align with attention to students' spiritual development.
Major Suggestions
Provide scholarly theoretical and empirical foundations or specific and accepted developmental theories to support and elaborate on the key developmental briefly described on page 2. (None were cited.) The tasks as listed (the 4 I's) are somewhat narrow in depicting emerging adult development; there are social, cognitive or intellectual and especially spiritual tasks (e.g. Fowler's theory?) along with the 4 primarily emotional or psychological tasks stated. Also, for example, much of the 'independence' task sounds similar to 'impulse control'. What about tasks considering one's future career or occupational goals and work?
It's important to set up and support the basic spiritual developmental issues before discussing the activities used at a Jesuit university to facilitate students' spiritual transformation (within the broader context of students as developing human beings.)
Clarify how the particular educational program links to or supports spiritual development or even particular spiritual developmental tasks or spiritual transformation. In addition, integrate existing supporting empirical evidence within discussion of each educational program or activity, instead of leaving discussion of research until the end of the paper.
These revisions would strengthen the paper by helping the reader make connections in the content and understand better why, for example, the 4D's are effective, how programs regarding social justice or reflection on meaning fit into the student's developmental tasks, and how certain educational programs foster spiritual transformation.
This more integrated approach in writing the paper would also lead to conclusions about what exists and then what research is needed next to inform design of effective faith-based university programs that facilitate students' spiritual transformation.
Author Response
I am very grateful to Reviewer 1 who offered a number of helpful suggestions to improve the paper. I have responded to his/her suggestions below in bold to allow for easier reading.
This well-written paper addresses an important aspect of human development, spirituality, in reference to the particularly challenging developmental period of emerging adulthood. Spiritual development is an interesting dimension but one not always addressed in younger adults. I offer the following suggestions to help the author improve and refine the paper:
State the purpose early in the paper. Lines 41-45 hint at it but it is not stated clearly.
Yes, good suggestion and I now added more and clearer language in this section. Please see new lines 46-52.
Cite references more recent than 2001 (line 33) to support statements about where college students are residing today, in 2020.
I replaced the 2001 reference with an appropriate and updated 2018 one (Bloom 2018).
Very nice background provided to describe the Jesuit order in reference to higher education, and how its principles align with attention to students' spiritual development.
Thank you!
Major Suggestions
Provide scholarly theoretical and empirical foundations or specific and accepted developmental theories to support and elaborate on the key developmental briefly described on page 2. (None were cited.) The tasks as listed (the 4 I's) are somewhat narrow in depicting emerging adult development; there are social, cognitive or intellectual and especially spiritual tasks (e.g. Fowler's theory?) along with the 4 primarily emotional or psychological tasks stated. Also, for example, much of the 'independence' task sounds similar to 'impulse control'. What about tasks considering one's future career or occupational goals and work?
Great point. I now have provided appropriate research references to developmental theories with appropriate additional references now included and referred to.
It's important to set up and support the basic spiritual developmental issues before discussing the activities used at a Jesuit university to facilitate students' spiritual transformation (within the broader context of students as developing human beings.)
Clarify how the particular educational program links to or supports spiritual development or even particular spiritual developmental tasks or spiritual transformation. In addition, integrate existing supporting empirical evidence within discussion of each educational program or activity, instead of leaving discussion of research until the end of the paper.
Yes, I have added language to each of those sections with appropriate references.
These revisions would strengthen the paper by helping the reader make connections in the content and understand better why, for example, the 4D's are effective, how programs regarding social justice or reflection on meaning fit into the student's developmental tasks, and how certain educational programs foster spiritual transformation.
This more integrated approach in writing the paper would also lead to conclusions about what exists and then what research is needed next to inform design of effective faith-based university programs that facilitate students' spiritual transformation.
Yes, agreed.
Reviewer 2 Report
Though the rationale and literature are presented well, the study lacks scientific rigor. If it is primarily a review of literature, please state that in title and abstract. The study could have been strong if interviews of students or educators were conducted or if it was integrative review of literature or meta-analysis. All the best for your future research in this direction.
Author Response
"Though the rationale and literature are presented well, the study lacks
scientific rigor. If it is primarily a review of literature, please
state that in title and abstract. The study could have been strong if
interviews of students or educators were conducted or if it was
integrative review of literature or meta-analysis. All the best for your
future research in this direction."
Yes I agree that it is not an empirical study but rather a review which was the purpose of the submission for the invited call for the special issue by editor, Lisa Miller. There is so little published in the professional literature using social science methodologies and empirical research on this topic (i.e., spiritual formation in Jesuit higher education) that a meta-analysis or integrative review is not possible at this time. Hopefully, as more research is published over time, then this can occur. As suggested, I have altered the title to reflect the reviewer’s point about this being more of a review.
Reviewer 3 Report
The topic of this paper is interesting. However, the manuscript contains way too many citations of the author's own publications. Much more of a diversity of literature needs to be presented, especially on the first couple of pages and on p. 6. Furthermore, the manuscript seems a bit choppy; it is hard to see the logical transitions from one section/topic to the next.
Author Response
I am very grateful to Reviewer 3 who some helpful suggestions to improve the paper. I have responded to their suggestions below in boldto allow for easier reading.
Reviewer 3
The topic of this paper is interesting. However, the manuscript contains way too many citations of the author's own publications. Much more of a diversity of literature needs to be presented, especially on the first couple of pages and on p. 6. Furthermore, the manuscript seems a bit choppy; it is hard to see the logical transitions from one section/topic to the next.
Thank you. I include many new references in the first section as suggested. I also took out several of my own references too throughout. The challenge that I have is that so few people work in the area of empirical research on Jesuit education and in some subtopics I’m the only person who publishes in the area. I do not mean to be self-focused or narcissistic but some of these areas are just not examined by social scientists yet. Hopefully, this problem will change over time.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The author revised the paper somewhat to address earlier concerns. This improved the paper. However, what was needed was presentation of theoretical and empirical support for each of the particular developmental tasks (the 4Is) listed, rather than adding one paragraph citing various theories about emerging adults. It looked like the authors were citing themselves as support for the 4 I's but surely there is research and theory about emerging adult development that could be used in this paper in a coherent framework or foundation to justify the developmental 'tasks' identified, and also as rationale for why the various programs presented would facilitate emerging adult development.
Further, these 4 I's are not pulled through the paper, as a supporting framework, to guide and reflect upon the relevance of each college program. Instead, the various approaches are listed one after the other without much rationale, documentation of theory or empirical support of their relevance in facilitating emerging adult development or well-being. This detracts from the scientific soundness of the strategies proposed to facilitate spiritual development if not transformation of college-age students.
Reviewer 2 Report
If it was for a special edition and review is accepted for this edition, then from my end I accept it too. Wishing you the best for future research directions.
