Knowledge of Trainee Teachers about the New Water Culture: A Comparative Study between Two Spanish Cities

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Very interesting paper about new culture of water diagnosis of skateholders from two cities in Spain where this topic is a controversial issue. Good paper!

1. This article examines the level of knowledge of future teachers of Compulsory Education (Primary and Secondary) in two Spanish cities (Melilla and Granada) that present different water conditions. One of the initial questions raised in this research on the knowledge of future teachers about water is what exact knowledge would be desirable for future teachers to have. In this sense, the authors of this work have found in the New Water Culture a representative framework of said knowledge.

2. This article has a great value since it addresses a subject of great importance and current issues in the field of study. Its deep and detailed approach to water conflicts and their impact on the training of future Compulsory Education teachers provides a valuable contribution to the field of research. By examining the knowledge of teachers in two Spanish cities with different water conditions, Melilla and Granada, the article offers an enriching and comparative vision that allows a better understanding of the influence of context in the preparation of educators. This work not only enriches academic knowledge, but may also have practical implications in improving teacher training and ultimately the quality of education in relation to the vital resource of water.

3. Publications regarding the knowledge of the New Culture of Water in teachers which are still training are scarce; in addition, in this research a comparative vision between populations with diverse water conditions is presented.

4. This article specifies that the measurement instrument is rated on a 4-point scale, from 1 to 4. It would be convenient to determine which are the exact responses it uses (e.g., 1=strongly agree, 4=strongly disagree; or 1=strongly disagree, 4=strongly agree?).

5. The conclusions presented in this article are appropriate and reflect full respect for the objective of the investigation. The findings obtained after examining the knowledge of future Compulsory Education teachers about water in two Spanish cities with different water conditions have been duly supported by solid data and analysis. In addition, the conclusions are aligned in a coherent way with the initial approaches of the study, providing a clear and well-founded vision of what knowledge would be considered desirable for teachers in training in relation to water. The contribution of the New Water Culture framework as a basis for these results strengthens the applicability and relevance of the conclusions, contributing significantly to the advancement of knowledge in this field.

6. The references used in this article are adequate and show rigorous compliance with the objective of the research. Each source cited has been carefully selected to support and enrich the arguments presented throughout the study, and their relevance reflects a well-founded research. In addition, a diversity of sources is evidenced, including relevant academic works, specialized publications and previous studies related to the issue of water and education.

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Please see my comments in the attached document. 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

There are a few minor grammatical errors and typos throughout. 

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The title of the article does not reveal the main contain of the work. It should be changed, for example, referring to the knowledge of trainee teachers concerning the NWC. Besides, some keyworks are missing, as water education or sustainable education, to make clearer the content of the text. The introduction of the article contains two bullet points whose contain should be included in the plain text. 

Section 2  is not a proper theoretical framework. It introduces the fundamental axes of the NWC, which is nice, but it does not present a literature review of how the NWC has been a framework for many environmental education programs in European Education since the improvement of the Water Management Directive two decades ago. This section does not mention also the work conducted by several university institutions to introduce sustainability in curricula and, specifically, approaching environmental education for trainee teachers. Thus, there is a lack of effort in searching literature relevant on the field that would contribute to comprehend the relevance of the topic as well as to improve the analysis and discussion of the results.

Section 3 -materials and methods- is not very clear. Although the authors refer to a previous study, the current text should contain a better description of the instrument and provide some examples of the questions to facilitate the comprehension of the work without reading another paper.

Also, a background of the sample would be nice. As the sample are future teachers that are currently university studies, it would be interesting to know if they have studied some subjects related to sustainability, environmental education, social education, etc during the degree. In many universities, these subjects are part of the curriculum, and it would make the difference. Also, knowing the age of the same would be useful.

Finally, the results and the discussion should be improved. The tables are not very descriptive and understandable, the word “item” should be substituted by brief descriptive content, and the main results illustrated in the same should be described previously in the main text. It is not clear what is the relevance of the study, and the results overall.

Also, there are several factors that might the search of future teachers for sustainability and sustainable water management, for example, researching their attitudes and their commitment to mitigate climate change or natural resources depletion. Educational experience should contribute to improve commitment to nature. There are many studies showing different approaches about how to introduce sustainability and water management, starting with improving the curricula with new models of environmental education for sustainability that seek to educate a society capable of addressing present and future socio-environmental challenges.

Quality of language is ok. The text has minor typos and mistakes to be correct but is perfectly understandable. Further, there are several paragraphs that are too long for English standards.

In terms of academic language, I would recommend to avoid “we” expressions an make the text more impersonal, as usual in academic journals.    

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Thank you for addressing the concerns. Regarding the citations, some of the dates are cited differently than others. For example, citation 9 has the year in parentheses after the author, where many of the others have the dates bolded and right before the page number (example: citation 11). I also think that it is important to consider that many of your references seem to be more websites and less peer-reviewed articles. The discussion still feels like it is mostly restating the results and have less discussion on applicability or why these results may be valuable to a wider, global audience. I'd like to see more attempt to embed the discussion in the literature. While it is okay as it is, expanding on the discussion a bit more could make it excellent.

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Thank you for your very descriptive report. I believe that more efford should be done  in terms of the review of the state-of-the-art. However, the paper is a nice paper, with some limitations in the theoretical frame and the discussion and conclusions, that can be even improved with recommendations of changes in curricula or collaborations with the NCA association to improve water awareness among training students.    

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf