Factors Influencing Vocational Education and Training Teachers’ Professional Competence Based on a Large-Scale Diagnostic Method: A Decade of Data from China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This study aimed to explore the factors influencing vocational eachers’ professional competence in the education and training system in China. This study is of great importance for the international practice of organizing educational systems, since it is the result of a large-scale study in which methods were applied to assess the real process.

The authors applied a large-scale diagnostic method based on the Competence Measurement in VET Teachers’ professional competence model. Methods correspond to the goal, hypotheses consistently detail the goal. The presented model and the validity of the corresponding test are not in doubt.

In conclusion, recommendations are given to improve the situation in the field of improving the competencies of teachers.

Author Response

Thank you very much for your recognition and encouragement.

At the same time, we made minor changes according to the opinions of the other two reviewers. All changes were recorded using the ‘Track Changes’ function of Word.

Reviewer 2 Report

This is an interesting paper, written well with minor grammatical errors dotted around. It is also presented well. 

Abstract: The abstract provides a good synopsis of the paper, however, check lines 18 and 28 for grammatical errors

The introduction - The introduction sets the scene for the paper well.  Check line 58  - grammatical error.

Conceptual Clarifications and research hypothesis

This section is structured well and provides a good description of the conceptual understanding, however, the research hypothesis section seems to go into a discussion on some of the hypothesis and list the first set.  The discussion for me after H10 - H15 lots of this should be in the discussion section is my view as it detracts from the discussion section which is quite light at this stage. 

The Hypothetical model is visually presented well.

3. Materials and methods section

The data analysis has one line of explanation which is not sufficient and perhaps requires some shifting around of content from the other previous sections into this section.

The discussion section line 400 - 403 looks like it requires a citation. Line 405 at the start of the sentence - grammatical error.

The discussion section would have benefitted from more clearly linking back to the hypothesis listed. This is an important section and a clearer focus and link back to the hypothesis would improve this section.

References

Although there are several current articles listed,  there are too many outdated articles, way beyond 5 years old. Several articles do not list the year of publication.

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Not all the sources listed are highly relevant to the research. Some of them contain raw statistical data that has not been processed and the results have not been generalised. In my opinion, the number of sources listed is too long.

The aim of the study is understandable - that is, to identify and analyse factors influencing teachers' professional competence (line 16). By which is meant the professional competence of teachers currently working. Meanwhile, in the definition of the term 'Professional Competence' (line 114), the article's authors listed the qualities of teacher candidates, or rather their psycho-personal predispositions.

The hypotheses formulated in the paper were formulated too generally and not in a way that values their essence or indicates the direction of impact. Hypotheses that are too general are difficult to prove or reject, which the authors themselves did not do in some cases. This is the case with hypothesis "H8: Family moral support affects teachers' professional competence" (line 193). In the literature sources ([68,69], line 491), this hypothesis was proven in relation to the nursing profession - whereas the authors of the paper did not test this hypothesis in relation to teachers (line 498). Therefore, an untested hypothesis should not be considered in the study. 

Carrying out a questionnaire of only 601 teachers (line 287) that took as long as 10 years to complete (line 22) indicates an inefficient, lengthy and therefore also costly research method.

The research findings and discussion presented would be more compelling if the research was repeated several times on different test samples. In particular, it would have been important to compare the results of studies using the described method obtained in China with those obtained, for example, in Germany or South Africa (line 268). Through comparative studies, it would be possible to assess the quality of the method itself and extend the evaluation of its results.

Not all references in the paper are compatible with the format contained in "mdpi-article-template.pdf". For example, the format used was [29][30] (line 159) instead of [29,30] (line 25, template file).

The second half of the conclusions are too general, do not directly relate to the research results obtained and exceed the scope of the work. Besides, motivating teachers to participate more often in skills competitions is a bit of a logical contradiction if the number of skils available and the number of prizes awarded does not increase. 

The language of the work is understandable, but sometimes there are editing errors - no spaces after commas and parentheses (for example, lines 237 and 238).

The names of the authors on the first page of the article are not very clearly given, this includes co-authors: Zhixin Zhang and Zhiqun Zhao. For this reason, their shortcuts cannot be identified, for example, in Author Contributions. It is not clear which co-author the shortcuts Z.Z.Q. or Z.Z.X. used refer to.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf