The Benefits of Music in Teaching Catholic Religious Education in Croatia
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The article entitled "The Benefits of Music in Teaching Catholic Religious Education in Croatia" deals with the topic of interdisciplinary in education in Croatia through the model of cross-curricular correlation between musical culture and religious education.
The presence of music in religious education in Croatia is achieved through content (appropriate spiritual and liturgical songs), cross-curricular correlation of religious education and musical culture, religion teachers and music teachers, joint projects and extracurricular activities of religious teachers and music teachers. However, as indicated in the article, there is still a lot of areas for cooperation in order to use the benefits of music in religious education on a wider level.
The special value and contribution of the article is the sensitizing of religious teachers and music culture teachers as well as professional musicians for cooperation and interdisciplinarity in the form of promoting the motivational, methodical, artistic, substantive and spiritual dimensions of music in upbringing and education, especially in religious education.
In the end, I would like to point out two segments in the form of a better foundation of the presented theses and conclusions in the article:
· Since the author mentions the research (use of a survey questionnaire) in two different amateur choirs, it would be useful to provide more information about the questionnaire and methodical instrumentation that was applied in the mentioned research as well as in the interpretation of the obtained results.
· It is necessary define to more clearly the hypotheses and parameters that are applied in the analysis and comparison of the amateur choir and choral singing in the class in the form of evaluating the benefits of music that each of them brings to religious education.
· With the aim of improvement the level of reference to Croatian literature and research dealing with the relationship between music and religious studies as well as religious studies and musical culture, I suggest consulting the works of the Zbornik Canite et psalite, Zbornik u čast prof. art. Miroslava Martinjaka povodom 70. godine života, Zagreb, 2021.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 Comments
Point 1: Since the author mentions the research (use of a survey questionnaire) in two different amateur choirs, it would be useful to provide more information about the questionnaire and methodical instrumentation that was applied in the mentioned research as well as in the interpretation of the obtained results.
Response 1: We have provided more information about the survey in the footnote. Thank you for pointing it out that it might be useful to share it at this stage.
Point 2: It is necessary define to more clearly the hypotheses and parameters that are applied in the analysis and comparison of the amateur choir and choral singing in the class in the form of evaluating the benefits of music that each of them brings to religious education.
Response 2: We added a few things to the sub-section 2.3 that might give a better picture of the importance of comparing these two groups. We share this comparison to point out that methods that could help children to be involved in the interdisciplinary teaching process already exist. The main goal while comparing amateur choir singing with classroom singing is to avoid improvisation in the music field whether constructive, proven and easy-to-use methods already exist in the field of modern conducting. Hence, this article aims to encourage an idea of interdisciplinary learning while using unrivalled methods of each discipline included in the process.
Point 3: With the aim of improvement the level of reference to Croatian literature and research dealing with the relationship between music and religious studies as well as religious studies and musical culture, I suggest consulting the works of the Zbornik Canite et psalite, Zbornik u čast prof. art. Miroslava Martinjaka povodom 70. godine života, Zagreb, 2021.
Response 3: We are very thankful for instructing us to the great edition dedicated to Prof. Martinjak. As this topic seems to be very alive at the moment, we hope to provide further research for interdisciplinary teaching RE in Croatia. First of the following steps would be the handbook for RE teachers, which for sure would include the suggested collection of papers. We have mentioned the reference also in the footnote 21.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The article on the role of music in religious education in Croatia is an extremely interesting attempt to place both religious education and music education in a broader inter(muliti)disciplinary context. The topic is novel and I personally, as a catechist, find it pleasant and interesting. The authors correctly constructed the structure of the article, kept the right proportions, and also drew interesting and relevant conclusions to the content. Nevertheless, the authors did not shy away from errors that should be eliminated in order for the article to meet the criteria of a scientific text. These include the following:
- some parts of the text are poorly (or not at all) sourced (see 2.1.1; 2.1.3.1; 2.2.3.1), which makes it unclear whether we are dealing with the opinions of the authors or the knowledge of recognized authorities. A large part of the bibliography (especially the most recent ones!!!) is not used in the article, this needs to be corrected and completed;
- in order to emphasize the need for interdisciplinary reflection on the role of music in religious education, the authors point to the need for collaboration between religious educators, music educators, and conductors. A legitimate question is whether this group should be extended to include theologians (catechists) for theoretical reflection on the role of music in religious education?
- the authors of the article use the phrase "via pulcherinibus" - it begs to be supplemented that the authors of the Directory for Catechesis of 2020 (p. 106-109) call for the renewal of this path in catechesis, inspired by the thoughts of Pope Francis from the exhortation Evangelii Gaudium of 2013 (p. 167 );
- when we refer to another author for the first time, it is worth using the whole name or initial (see line 294) and when referring to him again only the last name (see line 304) - in the latter case we learn that that the author of "something" thinks, but we do not know where we find these thoughts;
- description of the tests in sub-section 2.3. is so general that it is difficult to assess how much it is needed in the article and how much it affects the conclusions. Research has its own methodology, framework in which it takes place, hypotheses that are later verified - in this case we do not find out what they were about and what similarities or differences characterize the two studied (observed) groups.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 2 Comments
Point 1: Some parts of the text are poorly (or not at all) sourced (see 2.1.1; 2.1.3.1; 2.2.3.1), which makes it unclear whether we are dealing with the opinions of the authors or the knowledge of recognized authorities. A large part of the bibliography (especially the most recent ones!!!) is not used in the article, this needs to be corrected and completed.
Response 1: Pointed-up paragraphs 2.1.1; 2.1.3.1; 2.2.3.1 are enriched with the opinions of the recognized authorities. The bibliography on which the text is based is now more clearly included and used in the article.
Point 2: In order to emphasize the need for interdisciplinary reflection on the role of music in religious education, the authors point to the need for collaboration between religious educators, music educators, and conductors. A legitimate question is whether this group should be extended to include theologians (catechists) for theoretical reflection on the role of music in religious education?
Response 2: The topic is very vivid and has a strong intention to collaborate between disciplines. In this stage, one of the main aims was to point out that active musicians (conductor) could help at the starting point of using musical content in RE. Speaking of future work, there would be a broad space collaboration is a necessity to collaborate with theologians (catheists) for the theoretical reflection on the role of music in religious education. Hence, it would be a privilege in the future to make this dialogue among disciplines (for example when preparing the handbook for RE teachers) to avoid incompetence in any of the involved sectors. We have share this thought in the footnote 20.
Point 3: The authors of the article use the phrase "via pulcherinibus" - it begs to be supplemented that the authors of the Directory for Catechesis of 2020 (p. 106-109) call for the renewal of this path in catechesis, inspired by the thoughts of Pope Francis from the exhortation Evangelii Gaudium of 2013 (p. 167 );
Response 3: We are very thankful for instructing us on the references that we added to footnote 1.
Point 4: When we refer to another author for the first time, it is worth using the whole name or initial (see line 294) and when referring to him again only the last name (see line 304) - in the latter case we learn that that the author of "something" thinks, but we do not know where we find these thoughts.
Response 4: We have made the mentioned points clearer now, thank you for your recommendation.
Point 5: Description of the tests in sub-section 2.3. is so general that it is difficult to assess how much it is needed in the article and how much it affects the conclusions. Research has its own methodology, framework in which it takes place, hypotheses that are later verified - in this case we do not find out what they were about and what similarities or differences characterize the two studied (observed) groups.
Response 5: We added a few things to the sub-section 2.3 that might give a better picture of the importance of comparing these two groups. We share this comparison to point out that methods that could help children to be involved in the interdisciplinary teaching process already exist. The main goal while comparing amateur choir singing with classroom singing is to avoid improvisation in the music field whether constructive, proven and easy-to-use methods already exist in the field of modern conducting. Hence, this article aims to encourage the idea of interdisciplinary learning while using the best of each discipline included in the process.
If there is still a sense of unneccessarity, we would be pleased to remove the sub-section 2.3.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The article is convincing in its arguments and strongly favours to do that kind of teaching as an interdisciplinary enterprise. This is wise and helps to avoid incompentence in one or the other sector involved.
Author Response
We are very thankful for the comments and how the paper has been validated by Reviewer 3 as we especially hope to avoid future incompetence in one or the other sector involved.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
I consider the revised text and the authors' arguments in response to the review to be substantive and satisfactory. Thank you for taking into account my suggestions.
