The Quality of Training Future Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case from TNPU

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

General comments:

• The topic and the structure of the paper is interesting, but I have several doubts concerning terminology, which is often used in an implicit way. Therefore, it is not easy to understand if is properly used.
• What is your concept of blended learning? The concept is not defined and my impression is that it is regarded as distant leaning.
• What is the concept of offline learning you subscribe?
• As for literature review, the concept of communicative competence is primarily sociolinguistic. In this paper, it is presented in a rather simplistic way, so it can be improved. I suggest that the authors encompass Chomsky an Hymes - pragmatic and ethnographic views. These authors are part of the reference section, but they are not clearly considered in the discussion of the concept.

Specific remarks:

Line 140; 367 - 4) electronic system Moodle, platforms Zoom, Google Classroom, messengers Telegram, Viber, etc.  The enumeration is not accurate. The category of these “educational” resources is not the same.  Moodle is a LMS, Zoom is a VCT (Video conferencing tool…)  There is a wide range of ICT tools.

Line 140 – What is an electronic system within this context?

Line 173 –Speech cohesion and speech coherence are not clearly distinguished.

Lines 243-244 – spelling and grammar mistakes

Line 275 -280 –  Check the use of the terms offline and online in this section. To my mind, offline means asynchronous learning, which is part of the e-learning concept, but you mention blended learning. I thought the experience was fully at distance…

I suggest that you include the following definition of Blended Learning, because the following authors did extensive research on the topic::

/../ a mixed learning paradigm that integrates e-learning with traditional learning theories and practices, materialized in a flexible, multimodal and multilinear redesign that promotes self-regulation and collaborativeness.  Fernandes, Joana et al. (2016:11)

(Fernandes, Joana et al. (2016) Putting Order into Our Universe: The Concept of Blended Learning—A Methodology within the Concept-based Terminology Framework Educ. Sci. 2016, 6, 15),

Line 292 - Then you mention a blended system. Are you considering a blended system, or a distance system? It is not the same…

Line 347 -Zoom Program is not accurate terminology (Zoom VCT).

Author Response

Line 140; 367 - corrected in red

Line 140 – explained in red

Line 173 – corrected in red

Lines 243-244 – corrected in red

Line 275 -280 –  corrected in red, added to literature list 

Line 292 - corrected in red, added to literature review 

Line 347 - corrected in red

Reviewer 2 Report

The study presented an important topic that would be of interest to the readership of this journal. 

Introduce the paper describing what the paper is about. Expand to emphasize the problem leading to a clear set of research questions and objectives the research addresses.

Consider some improvement by adding earlier contributions that explored the problem statement. Regarding the research process of the study and the international research ethics guidelines that were followed the authors should consider the following paper:

Petousi, V., & Sifaki, E. (2020). Contextualizing harm in the framework of research misconduct. Findings from discourse analysis of scientific publications, International Journal of Sustainable Development, 23(3/4), 149-174, DOI: 10.1504/IJSD.2020.10037655  

More literature review is needed and more references should be included. I propose the following:

Karakose T, Yirci R, Papadakis S. Exploring the Interrelationship between COVID-19 Phobia, Work–Family Conflict, Family–Work Conflict, and Life Satisfaction among School Administrators for Advancing Sustainable Management. Sustainability. 2021; 13(15), 8654. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158654

Karakose, T.; Yirci, R.; Papadakis, S.; Ozdemir, T.Y.; Demirkol, M.; Polat, H. Science Mapping of the Global Knowledge Base on Management, Leadership, and Administration Related to COVID-19 for Promoting the Sustainability of Scientific Research. Sustainability 2021, 13, 9631. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179631

Poultsakis, S., Papadakis, S., Kalogiannakis, M., & Psycharis, S. (2021). The management of Digital Learning Objects of Natural Sciences and Digital Experiment Simulation Tools by teachers. Advances in Mobile Learning Educational Research, 1(2), 58-71.

Overall, the research process and the results could be explained more thoroughly to make the study more transparent and informative. Furthermore, the research would acquire more relevance and impact if the proposed teaching initiative were considered in light of the relevant emerging trends. Most importantly, the quality of the statistical analysis and data presentation in the paper needs substantial improvement. 

The paper needs to explain more clearly and in enough depth the research approach of the study. The methods should be adequately described to show how the research was conducted in order to improve the transparency of the research and add its trustworthiness.

The conclusion falls short of providing sufficient information that would allow a reader to actually understand the contribution of this research.

An interrogative and argumentative voice is lacking to make it more interesting.

In general, the English in the present manuscript is of publication quality and requires minor improvement. Please carefully proofread spell check to eliminate grammatical errors.

In sum, I applaud all the efforts of the author(s) for this research.

Author Response

corrected in red, added to literature list and literature review 

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

I consider that the authors have been very careful concerning their revision. They  improved a lot the clarity and academic soundness of their paper. Logical coherence of the text has also been improved. This second version of the manuscript is much more accurate concerning terminology and core concepts of their research topic.

Author Response

All corrections are in red

Reviewer 2 Report

I propose to accept this manuscript after minor revisions.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

COVERING LETTER ON PROOFREADING THE ARTICLE

• The notions of blended learning, Moodle and Google Classroom learning platforms, Zoom Cloud Meetings platform have been specified;
• the notion of communicative competence is considered as a sociolinguistic category; references to the corresponding sources have been made (Chomsky, N. Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965. Fedorenko, Y.S. Communicative competence as the most crucial element of successful communication. Ridna shkola 2002, Volume 1, 63-65, etc.);
• the latest researches suggested by the reviewers have been used to dwell on the notion of blended learning (Karakose, T; Yirci, R.; Papadakis, S. Exploring the Interrelationship between COVID-19 Phobia, Work–Family Conflict, Family–Work Conflict, and Life Satisfaction among School Administrators for Advancing Sustainable Management. Sustainability. 2021, Volume 13(15), 8654. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158654. Fernandes, ; Costa, R.; Peres, P. Putting Order into Our Universe: The Concept of Blended Learning—A Methodology within the Concept-based Terminology Framework. Educ. Sci. 2016, Volume 6(15), etc.);
• the conclusions have been revised and rewritten considering the remarks and suggestions of the reviewers;
• English grammar and stylistics have been improved;
• the structure of the article has been changed (the latest researches on the topic have been included and the notion of communicative competence has been specified).

The revised and improved fragments in the article are in red color.