Sources of Support and Their Benefits for New Primary School Teachers in Switzerland

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article is clear and well developed. The methodology is well explained and  the theoretical framework too. The article is globally interesting because it could suggest new ways to facilitate the entrance in the school of the new teachers, not only in Switzerland but also in all Europe.

It could be added a line to clarify if in the interviews of the participant to the program there are some negative feedback, caveat or suggestions about eventual improvements or all feedbacks of interviews are entirely positive.

There are only very few misprints to correct:

Line 97

Errata

variant[...] 

Corrige

Variant [...] 

 

Errata

forms[...]

Corrige

Forms [...]

 

Line 99

Errata 

(Reintjes, Bellenberg & im Brahm, 2018)

Corrige

(Reintjes et al., 2018)

 

In bibliography in the articles references sometimes the number of the year and of the issue is separated by a space other times no. It should be uniformed

 

Line 446

Errata:

52 (2)

Corrige

52(2)

 

Line 494:

Errata:

Juventa

Corrige

Juventa.

 

Line 513:

Errata:

14 (1)

Corrige:

14(1)

 

Author Response

Comments 1: It could be added a line to clarify if in the interviews of the participant to the program there are some negative feedback, caveat or suggestions about eventual improvements or all feedbacks of interviews are entirely positive.

Respones 1: Thank you very much for the valuable feedback. We have added a sentence to the comment above as well as the content of the interviews. It should now be easier to understand what the teachers were asked about and how their answers turned out.

Comments 2: There are only very few misprints to correct.

Responses 2: Thank you for the list of misprints, which we corrected on your recommendation.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This study aims to identify the various forms of support needed by primary school teachers entering the profession. To achieve this, semi-structured interviews were conducted, and a complex code analysis was employed.

Since the study yielded rather obvious findings, such as exchanging teaching experiences and receiving reassurance related to their teaching practice, it lacks a certain level of originality, making it difficult to be fully convinced of its significance and importance.

1. The core research question of this study is: "What are the effective forms of support for the professional development of teachers?" (L 44-45). However, this study does not appear to provide a clear answer to this question. It is necessary to supplement the rationale and provide a more detailed analysis based on the study's findings.
2. The title of section 2.1, "Offers of Support in the Career Entry Phase," may need revision to better reflect its focus on mentoring. A title such as "Mentoring and Support in the Career Entry Phase" could be more appropriate. What are your thoughts on this?
3. A significant number of references and citations in this study are written in German, which may limit accessibility for English-speaking readers. To enhance the study’s universality and accessibility, it would be advisable to replace them with sources in English where possible. Alternatively, if retaining the German sources, their bibliographic information should at least be provided in English.
4. While mentoring is addressed in section 2.1, the forms of cooperation discussed in section 2.2 seem somewhat disconnected from the main focus of the paper. To improve coherence, section 2.2 should be reorganized to align more closely with the core research objectives.
5. The classification of support types appears too broad and lacks granularity. A more fine-grained classification framework should be provided. Additionally, the criteria for classification should be explicitly presented to strengthen the theoretical rationale.
6. The research questions (L185–188) seem too broad or ambiguous, making it difficult to establish a clear research direction. They should be refined to enhance specificity and clarity.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

This study aims to identify the various forms of support needed by primary school teachers entering the profession. To achieve this, semi-structured interviews were conducted, and a complex code analysis was employed.

Since the study yielded rather obvious findings, such as exchanging teaching experiences and receiving reassurance related to their teaching practice, it lacks a certain level of originality, making it difficult to be fully convinced of its significance and importance.

1. The core research question of this study is: "What are the effective forms of support for the professional development of teachers?" (L 44-45). However, this study does not appear to provide a clear answer to this question. It is necessary to supplement the rationale and provide a more detailed analysis based on the study's findings.
2. The title of section 2.1, "Offers of Support in the Career Entry Phase," may need revision to better reflect its focus on mentoring. A title such as "Mentoring and Support in the Career Entry Phase" could be more appropriate. What are your thoughts on this?
3. A significant number of references and citations in this study are written in German, which may limit accessibility for English-speaking readers. To enhance the study’s universality and accessibility, it would be advisable to replace them with sources in English where possible. Alternatively, if retaining the German sources, their bibliographic information should at least be provided in English.
4. While mentoring is addressed in section 2.1, the forms of cooperation discussed in section 2.2 seem somewhat disconnected from the main focus of the paper. To improve coherence, section 2.2 should be reorganized to align more closely with the core research objectives.
5. The classification of support types appears too broad and lacks granularity. A more fine-grained classification framework should be provided. Additionally, the criteria for classification should be explicitly presented to strengthen the theoretical rationale.
6. The research questions (L185–188) seem too broad or ambiguous, making it difficult to establish a clear research direction. They should be refined to enhance specificity and clarity.

Author Response

Comment general: Since the study yielded rather obvious findings, such as exchanging teaching experiences and receiving reassurance related to their teaching practice, it lacks a certain level of originality, making it difficult to be fully convinced of its significance and importance.

Responses general: Thank you so much for the detailed feedback to our manuscript! We have emphasised the relevance of the study even more clearly, so that it should be easier to see its significance and importance.

Comments 1: The core research question of this study is: "What are the effective forms of support for the professional development of teachers?" (L 44-45). However, this study does not appear to provide a clear answer to this question. It is necessary to supplement the rationale and provide a more detailed analysis based on the study's findings.

Respones 1: The question was reformulated slightly so that the focus is more clearly recognisable: Teachers have to work together in various situations at school and mentoring can be a cooperative, therefore cooperation is important for teachers entering the profession. To better understand how teachers cooperate with others to cope with the challenges entering the profession, and which offers of support are used to meet teachers’ needs, it is necessary to consider the forms of cooperation that teachers encounter.

Comments 2: The title of section 2.1, "Offers of Support in the Career Entry Phase," may need revision to better reflect its focus on mentoring. A title such as "Mentoring and Support in the Career Entry Phase" could be more appropriate. What are your thoughts on this?

Responses 2: Thank you for this feedback, we also think, that it wasn't clearly emphasised, how mentoring and support are going together. So we changed the title 2.1 to Mentoring as a offer of support in the career entry and deleted the title 2.2 forms of cooperation, so that we focus on cooperative mentoring and it's forms of cooperation.

Comments 3: A significant number of references and citations in this study are written in German, which may limit accessibility for English-speaking readers. To enhance the study’s universality and accessibility, it would be advisable to replace them with sources in English where possible. Alternatively, if retaining the German sources, their bibliographic information should at least be provided in English.

Responses 3: We understand this point very well. However, as the study was conducted in German-speaking countries, the majority of the study is based on research results from German-speaking countries. Some international sources were replaced or supplemented by English-language studies. Translating the German sources into English does not seem to make sense to us and would rather be a falsification of the source citation, as the sources can only be found via their German title. We hope you understand our thoughts.

Comments 4: While mentoring is addressed in section 2.1, the forms of cooperation discussed in section 2.2 seem somewhat disconnected from the main focus of the paper. To improve coherence, section 2.2 should be reorganized to align more closely with the core research objectives.

Responses 4: In addition to the changes recognisable in respones 2 above, we have also formulated the transition to the forms of cooperation more specifically and clarified it more precisely.

Comments 5: The classification of support types appears too broad and lacks granularity. A more fine-grained classification framework should be provided. Additionally, the criteria for classification should be explicitly presented to strengthen the theoretical rationale.

Responses 5: Thank you for pointing this difficult methodological understanding out.  The forms of support are now differentiated and assigned to the four forms of Little (1990). So it should be clear now, what we coded to each of the four forms.

Comments 6: The research questions (L185–188) seem too broad or ambiguous, making it difficult to establish a clear research direction. They should be refined to enhance specificity and clarity.

Responses 6: As you can also see in Repsonse 1: The question was reformulated slightly so that the focus is more clearly recognisable: Teachers have to work together in various situations at school and mentoring can be a cooperative, therefore cooperation is important for teachers entering the profession. To better understand how teachers cooperate with others to cope with the challenges entering the profession, and which offers of support are used to meet teachers’ needs, it is necessary to consider the forms of cooperation that teachers encounter. 

On the point of possible improvements to the quality of the English language, without comments on what exactly is not good, we would like to point out that the manuscript has been proofread by proofreading.org. We therefore do not know what we can or should improve.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is a previously revised work, which incorporates the suggestions made at the time and which obviously improve the article. I find the topic of interest; very focused on one country (Switzerland)
The method and materials used seem to me correct, as does the presentation of the results.
I fully agree with what he says, in the sense that it would be good for the career of new teachers if school culture promoted the search for and acceptance of help by teachers as well as the exchange of teaching materials.
The discussion section I think could be a little more in depth, and above all important to introduce a specific section of "Conclusions".

 

Author Response

Comments 1: This is a previously revised work, which incorporates the suggestions made at the time and which obviously improve the article. I find the topic of interest; very focused on one country (Switzerland)
The method and materials used seem to me correct, as does the presentation of the results.
I fully agree with what he says, in the sense that it would be good for the career of new teachers if school culture promoted the search for and acceptance of help by teachers as well as the exchange of teaching materials.

Responses 1: Thank you very much for your kind words and your interest in our research.

Comments 2: The discussion section I think could be a little more in depth, and above all important to introduce a specific section of "Conclusions".

Responses 2: Thank you for this comment. We have deepened the discussion and added another section title Conclucions where appropriate.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The research purpose and starting point are somewhat meaningful, but it is difficult to conclude that this study effectively addresses the core question of "effective support forms for the professional development of teacher education." Although the authors have made some revisions, the classification framework for support types remains overly broad, making it difficult to derive sufficient results. Additionally, a large portion of the literature written in German has been included as is, which limits the accessibility of the academic research. The research findings do not seem to have high enough value for widespread sharing in an international academic journal, and I am not confident about the final decision regarding publication. It would be best for the editor-in-chief to make the final decision.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The research purpose and starting point are somewhat meaningful, but it is difficult to conclude that this study effectively addresses the core question of "effective support forms for the professional development of teacher education." Although the authors have made some revisions, the classification framework for support types remains overly broad, making it difficult to derive sufficient results. Additionally, a large portion of the literature written in German has been included as is, which limits the accessibility of the academic research. The research findings do not seem to have high enough value for widespread sharing in an international academic journal, and I am not confident about the final decision regarding publication. It would be best for the editor-in-chief to make the final decision.

Author Response

Comments 1: The research purpose and starting point are somewhat meaningful, but it is difficult to conclude that this study effectively addresses the core question of "effective support forms for the professional development of teacher education." 

Responses 1: Thank you very much for your valuable feedback. We were not aware that the aim of our article was not clearly understood. We are aware that our article cannot make any statements about the effectiveness of forms of support. However, we do show which forms of support are actually used in which situations from the teachers' point of view. In other words, they are central to the further development of teachers. Whether they are effective for professional development would have to be analysed in an intervention design. We have therefore adapted the wording in this regard and included the intervention design in the discussion. 

Comments 2: Although the authors have made some revisions, the classification framework for support types remains overly broad, making it difficult to derive sufficient results.

Responses 2: Thank you for this assessment. If we differentiate the forms of support more, the results of the complex code configuration become less meaningful. We think that the classifications have become more understandable due to the description of the categories that we added in the last revision. We have therefore decided to leave the classification framework as it is.

Comments 3: Additionally, a large portion of the literature written in German has been included as is, which limits the accessibility of the academic research. 

Responses 3: We have again added sources from the English literature. However, there is still German literature that deals with coaching models from German-speaking countries. This cannot be changed, as our study takes place in a context that is based on these models.

Comments 4: The research findings do not seem to have high enough value for widespread sharing in an international academic journal, and I am not confident about the final decision regarding publication. It would be best for the editor-in-chief to make the final decision.

Responses 4: On our perspective, our results are of international significance when it comes to how teachers can be supported in their career entry. Knowing in which situation which support from whom is important can help to internationally develop support concepts and tailor them to the teachers entering the profession.