Exploring Student Engagement in Sustainability Education and Study Abroad

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The strengths of the article is original and interesting considerations with is consistent with the pattern of research. Solid methodology of the research with statistical analysis. Therefore contribution to existing knowledge is considerable. Also advantage of the research is perfect organization & readability. I cannot find the weaknesses of the assessed article. Model article worthy of imitation. In generally it is excellent article and very interesting considerations, which is consistent with the pattern of research. A very good review article with the analysis of statistics on the topic under study. Overall evaluation: article it is suitable for publication in current version.

Author Response

no response required to review as paper approved as is

Reviewer 2 Report

First of all, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to review the paper entitled “Exploring Student Engagement in Sustainability Education and Study Abroad”. I think this paper is well written, just some minor recommendations needed.

 

Some recommendations are as follows:

Line 37 to 38 “intention to continue with hospitality and tourism as their academic area of study and their future career” – are your study sample majoring in hospitality and tourism?

 

Author/s should be clear in the introduction – since there are 3 big topics here, sustainability (related courses – this should also need to be stated clearly), study abroad, and student engagement (which is represented by deep learning). To add to the complexity, pre-posttest quasi experimental study was used. The literature review section is fine. It is only in the introduction that need some tweaking.

 

This is a difficult study, wherein data were collected and planned since 201. Would time in years make a difference (data collected within the different years)? My major concern is that there are many other components that might interact with the students, for instance, would the sustainability courses are taken by students who are majoring on those courses “ecology, forest resources, anthropology, marine sciences, and sustainable development (required courses)”, while the non-sustainability course might be taken by non-majors “world languages, business, communication, and instructional technology” (elective courses).

What does the average score of 40+ mean? (would this mean that the perfect score is 60, since 15 items 4 point Likert 4X15 = 60?), if this is the case students are actually also somewhat engaged in the non-sustainability courses, it so happens that they are more engaged in the sustainability courses.

Line 449 – 452 – seems to be a recommendation, not limitation

In general, the study is okay, just need to clarify the above mentioned issues.

Author Response

Reviewer 2

Some recommendations are as follows:

Line 37 to 38 “intention to continue with hospitality and tourism as their academic area of study and their future career” – are your study sample majoring in hospitality and tourism? -  changes made in red in paper

 Author/s should be clear in the introduction – since there are 3 big topics here, sustainability (related courses – this should also need to be stated clearly), study abroad, and student engagement (which is represented by deep learning). To add to the complexity, pre-posttest quasi experimental study was used. The literature review section is fine. It is only in the introduction that need some tweaking.  – changes made in abstract and introduction in paper in red

This is a difficult study, wherein data were collected and planned since 201. Would time in years make a difference (data collected within the different years)? My major concern is that there are many other components that might interact with the students, for instance, would the sustainability courses are taken by students who are majoring on those courses “ecology, forest resources, anthropology, marine sciences, and sustainable development (required courses)”, while the non-sustainability course might be taken by non-majors “world languages, business, communication, and instructional technology” (elective courses).   -   this appears to be a comment and so we have not made any changes – we believe the outline of the study is clear to the reader

What does the average score of 40+ mean? (would this mean that the perfect score is 60, since 15 items 4 point Likert 4X15 = 60?), if this is the case students are actually also somewhat engaged in the non-sustainability courses, it so happens that they are more engaged in the sustainability courses. -  changes made in red in paper in various sectons as noted in the comments section in the paper

Line 449 – 452 – seems to be a recommendation, not limitation  - changes made in red in paper