Integrating Japanese Local Government and Communities into the Educational Curriculum on Regional Sustainability Inside the UNESCO’s Biosphere Reserves and Geoparks

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The review comments are in the attached file.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 1, Thank you very much for your comments. Please see the attached file. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Congratulations for you initiative! There is a need to develop training programmes to acquire knowledge for sustainability and to raise awareness in order to achieve the longed-for sustainable development.

I would like to make the following suggestions for improvement to the work presented:

• It would be necessary to better explain the questions or blocks of the questionnaire. In addition to relating the questionnaire to the content of the course, what is the objective of the questionnaire?
• The development of the results seems to be scarce, taking into account the amount of information collected in the 4 semesters. I think that the description or presentation of the results could be improved.

Author Response

Congratulations for you initiative! There is a need to develop training programmes to acquire knowledge for sustainability and to raise awareness in order to achieve the longed-for sustainable development.

>Thank you very much for your comments and suggetions!

I would like to make the following suggestions for improvement to the work presented:

• It would be necessary to better explain the questions or blocks of the questionnaire. In addition to relating the questionnaire to the content of the course, what is the objective of the questionnaire?

>We have added explanations on the questionnaire structure with the objectives of the questions.

• The development of the results seems to be scarce, taking into account the amount of information collected in the 4 semesters. I think that the description or presentation of the results could be improved.

> The results were presented in more detail with some additional information in data analysis and methods.

 

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Author,

The Case Report "Integrating Japanese local government and communities into the educational curriculum on regional sustainability inside the UNESCO’s Biosphere Reserves and Geoparks", describes the original survey research and takes up a topic relevant to the Journal of Sustainability.

The subject of the study is very up-to-date and important, due to significance of using the education for Sustainable Development to raise the awareness, develop skills and attitudes to deal with sustainability issues such as environmental, social and cultural in relation with people, local communities and other regions of the world.

Strengths:

• The topic of the Case Report is very important.
• The Case Report is well structured.
• The whole study and the methodology section are adequate and sufficiently explained.
• The bibliographic review is very complete and current.
• The Case Report is easy to read.

Weaknesses:

Part 5. „Results” was written very vague. The Author did not describe all of the results, only some parts of it. The results are described and visualized poorly taking into the consideration all the data which was collected during the survey. As a consequence, results of the research included in the part 7 are not complex enough and are too vague.

 

In my opinion the Case Report can be published in the Journal of Sustainability after major revision. Author should show detailed results of survey, which refers to particular questionnaire items described in the part 4. „Data Collection”. Tabular and graphic visualization of the results should be made, which would allow to extend the conclusion section in part 7. 

The author thoroughly described the data collection (page 6):

„The questionnaire consisted of three parts (BRs, GP and Sustainable Development (SD)) and with two subparts of theory and practice in the BR and GP divisions. In total, students replied to 25 different questions (10 on theoretical courses of BRs/GPs, 10 on practical courses BRs/GPs, and 5 questions on SD). The theoretical analysis was conducted to evaluate the overall impression of the lectures provided by the local authorities, while the practical part was done to get the reflection of the students on regional sustainability. During the SD questions, students were required to find the site-specific element which will be related to a particular program of BR or GP.

Knowledge and Awareness on BR and GP programs were measured and scored as 1=Very Bad, 2=Bad, 3= Neutral, 4=Good, 5=Very Good. Attitudes towards the course were measured by a Likert scale of five ratings: 1=Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3=Neutral, 4=Agree and 5= Strongly Disagree. The closed-ended questions and multiple-choice questions were also collected with yes/no replies. At the end of the questionnaire, there was an open field allowing participants to add free comments. After course completion, all students were required to submit the reports and to answer questions about 1. how the theoretical and the practical parts of the course provided by the Governmental Council members and locals helped them to recognize the concept of BRs and GPs towards Sustainable Development and 2. the merits and demerits of the course.”

However, in Case Report she reports only small fragment of research results which is too vague in my opinion (as it is only in table 2).

All of the obtained results should be thoroughly described which will enable to extend as well as specify the results from the survey. Then, the Case Report will gain in value making it worth recommending to publish.

Author Response

Dear Author,

The Case Report "Integrating Japanese local government and communities into the educational curriculum on regional sustainability inside the UNESCO’s Biosphere Reserves and Geoparks", describes the original survey research and takes up a topic relevant to the Journal of Sustainability.

The subject of the study is very up-to-date and important, due to significance of using the education for Sustainable Development to raise the awareness, develop skills and attitudes to deal with sustainability issues such as environmental, social and cultural in relation with people, local communities and other regions of the world.

Strengths:

• The topic of the Case Report is very important.
• The Case Report is well structured.
• The whole study and the methodology section are adequate and sufficiently explained.
• The bibliographic review is very complete and current.
• The Case Report is easy to read.

>Thank you very much for your kind comments!

Weaknesses:

Part 5. „Results” was written very vague. The Author did not describe all of the results, only some parts of it. The results are described and visualized poorly taking into the consideration all the data which was collected during the survey. As a consequence, results of the research included in the part 7 are not complex enough and are too vague.

>We have added more details into the Methods, Data Analysis and described our Results in more detail.

In my opinion the Case Report can be published in the Journal of Sustainability after major revision. Author should show detailed results of survey, which refers to particular questionnaire items described in the part 4. „Data Collection”. Tabular and graphic visualization of the results should be made, which would allow to extend the conclusion section in part 7. 

>Tables and Figures we also added to visualize the data.

The author thoroughly described the data collection (page 6):

„The questionnaire consisted of three parts (BRs, GP and Sustainable Development (SD)) and with two subparts of theory and practice in the BR and GP divisions. In total, students replied to 25 different questions (10 on theoretical courses of BRs/GPs, 10 on practical courses BRs/GPs, and 5 questions on SD). The theoretical analysis was conducted to evaluate the overall impression of the lectures provided by the local authorities, while the practical part was done to get the reflection of the students on regional sustainability. During the SD questions, students were required to find the site-specific element which will be related to a particular program of BR or GP.

Knowledge and Awareness on BR and GP programs were measured and scored as 1=Very Bad, 2=Bad, 3= Neutral, 4=Good, 5=Very Good. Attitudes towards the course were measured by a Likert scale of five ratings: 1=Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3=Neutral, 4=Agree and 5= Strongly Disagree. The closed-ended questions and multiple-choice questions were also collected with yes/no replies. At the end of the questionnaire, there was an open field allowing participants to add free comments. After course completion, all students were required to submit the reports and to answer questions about 1. how the theoretical and the practical parts of the course provided by the Governmental Council members and locals helped them to recognize the concept of BRs and GPs towards Sustainable Development and 2. the merits and demerits of the course.”

However, in Case Report she reports only small fragment of research results which is too vague in my opinion (as it is only in table 2).

All of the obtained results should be thoroughly described which will enable to extend as well as specify the results from the survey. Then, the Case Report will gain in value making it worth recommending to publish.

>All of the results were described and added also into the Discussion part

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

I would be desirable to incorporate some picture or location map of the natural park. It allows European readers to get to know the place better.

Reviewer 3 Report

In my opinion the Case Report can be published in the Journal of Sustainability in present form.