Review Reports

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This study provides a solid empirical contribution to the literature on pedagogical models in PE. Despite some methodological limitations, it demonstrates that SEM can enhance students' experiences and the motivational climate, with differentiated effects by sex. The results argue for the integration of SEM into teacher training and for longer, more diversified interventions.

Notwithstanding the methodological rigor demonstrated in several aspects of this investigation, several substantive limitations warrant careful consideration. Conceptually, the absence of a control group following a traditional teaching model fundamentally constrains the establishment of causal inferences between the SEM intervention and the observed outcomes, as the potential influence of extraneous variables or natural maturation cannot be definitively ruled out. External validity is notably compromised by a restricted convenience sample (N=102 students from a single school, taught by a single pre-service teacher), thereby limiting the generalizability of the findings to broader populations, diverse educational contexts, or experienced teaching practitioners. The intervention's duration and intensity (merely 8 sessions) appear demonstrably suboptimal, particularly when contrasted with established literature recommending instructional units of 12 to 18 sessions for the full internalization of student roles and responsibilities, and for eliciting significant changes in complex constructs such as personally relevant learning or motor competence. The measurement strategy relies exclusively on self-report instruments, introducing a substantial risk of social desirability bias and providing a unidimensional perspective that overlooks behavioral and objective dimensions of the learning experience. Finally, content specificity (limited to basketball) and the unique characteristics of the instructor (inexperienced, in training, male) introduce potential confounding variables, making it difficult to disentangle effects uniquely attributable to the SEM framework from those related to the specific sport content or the teacher's idiosyncratic pedagogical style.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Line 29 - "was" to "has been". PE is very much still grounded in traditional models.

Line 30 - "in own learning process" could become "in their learning process"

Line 33 - "three troubles" might be "three ongoing concerns"

Lines 34-35 - "search for unattainable benefits for all kinds of students" could become "lack of inclusivity for a diverse range of learners".

Line 36 - in the 80's

Line 36-378 - If it is "supposing" a change, it suggests that it may not necessarily have been achieved which means that "has transformed" is inappropriate on next line. Has it or hasn't it resulted in change? I would say, not in any wholesale way.

Line 38-39 - "this new student's role" to "Students would have to opportunity to take greater responsibility in...."

Lines 49-50 - Pairing meaningful experiences and demotivating teaching approaches seems to pair a positive with a negative. I wonder whether you might pair meaningful experiences with motivating teaching approaches? Given that you go on to speak of approaches that foster or hinder) learning, couched as positive seems more strengths-based but doesn't mean you can't talk about what hinders as well. In lines 52-53 you pose it as a positive pairing which is good.

Line 54 - "an SEM" to "A SEM"

Line 62 - "sport whole experiences" - do you mean holistic sport experiences?

Line 63 - "the practice" of what? Sport? Unclear.

Line 66 - Remove "the" from "the sport culture"

Line 72 - "educational contexts" rather than "educational context"

Line 75 - "traduced", which means to disparage, doesn't fit here. Not sure what the author meant here.

Line 76 - "structured" rather than "structure"

Line 80 - "allows to track" - perhaps instead, say "allows tracking of"

Line 81 - ?Please explain how record keeping "helps to construct a sporting identity"?

Line 81-82 - I'm also not sure what you mean by "each team shows its identity through rituals and symbols". This could be explained more clearly.

Line 89 - "a" traditional model

Line 147 - "approach" to "approaches"

Line 148-9 - "By this way" to "In this way"

Line 149 - "intimidation" might be changed to "intimidatory" to describe the behaviours. Going on from this, perhaps "intimidatory behaviours such as public evaluation and humiliation"

Line 150-151 - "and generating" to "and generate"

Line 156 - correct the spelling of oppositional please

Line 160 - Change "an active students' role" to active roles for students" 

Line 160 - Please change "and providing opportunities" to "and provide opportunities".

Line 163 - By "students' levels", do you mean that the objectives are differentiated?

Line 165 - Change "significative" to "significant", which is used more commonly.

Line 173 - Please include an apostrophe in "students' lived experiences".

Line 187 - Please change "defined" to "define".

Line 192 - I'm not sure what you mean by "encourage tasks perceived as...". This sentence is not grammatically correct. Could you simply remove "encourage"?

Line 193 - Change "on motor" to "in motor".

Line 196 - Change "isolate" to "isolated".

Lines 196-197 - Please alter this sentence which is not grammatically correct - "rather they happen planning and integrated in pedagogical experiences, which goal is foster a deep, memorable and..."

Line 200 - It is preferable to use "it is" rather than "it's" in academic writing.

Line 214 - Remind the reader what the "five dimensions" are i.e., the five dimensions of...

Line 225-226 - Make it clear that you are talking about the approach of the teacher here - "Male students tend to report higher values in chaotic approaches (i.e., abandoning and awaiting) and domineering approach compared to female students".

Line 227 - I'm not sure what you mean by "speech", but I think you are trying to say "discourses".

Line 229 - change "female" to "females" and change "lead" to "leads".

Lines 29-230 - Are you talking about performing motor skills in public? It is not entirely clear.

Line 234 - Add the word "such" to "strategies such".

Line 239 - Add "in" to "pedagogical models in PE".

Line 269 - Change "students will be benefitted" to "students will benefit"

Line 486 - Change "share" to "shared".

Line 488 - Please alter the language in "related to the relatedness" so the same word or stem is not used twice in a sentence.

Lines 496-497 - Change "By this way" to "In this way", and then remove "to this" from the next line, so "this" is not repeated.

Line 497 - This could be clearer - "incorporating responsibility rotative roles" e.g., "incorporating rotating roles of responsibility" or "incorporating rotating responsibility roles".

Line 507 - Change "and" to "or" when listing what wasn't significant.

Line 511 - Change "prevalence" to "prevalent".

Line 511 - Change "By the other hand" to "On the other hand".

Line 517 - Change "to longer units" to "for longer units".

Line 522-523 - Please change "because of is difficult in educational context to get longer units" to "because it is difficult in an educational context to dictate the number of units" or similar.

528-530 - I am unsure of what you mean here - "control over the content to be taught has emerged as a challenge, as the teacher needs to have a strong 
understanding of the specific sport being taught". What is the relationship between control over content and understanding a sport? This is unclear.

Line 534 - Please add "the" to "as" i.e., "as the SEM-based teaching unit"

Line 559 - Please change "students’ level," to "students' level of ability" or similar.

Line 560 - Please change "choice to choose roles" so the same word (or root of), is not repeated.

Line 562-563 - Please change out one of the references to "progress" in this sentence - "track both individual and team progress, so it allows monitoring the progress", as it is repetitive.

Line 593 - Remove the word "were" so it reads "students benefitted from".

Line 595 - Change the word "descent" to "decrease".

Lines 608-6709 - Does the following statement relate to the teacher or boys' expectations - "the higher boys’ expectations"?

Lines 638-639 - Can you please clarify what you mean by "the participation of only one pre-service teacher"? Was the PST teaching 103 students?

Line 639 and line 642 and line 644 and line 646 - Change "futures" to "future".

Line 700. Please remove "the" prior to "SEM-based"

Please check throughout where you have used capitalisation for Meaningful PE. I don't believe this is required, but it is definitely inconsistent across the paper.

It becomes clearer at the end that this was a pre-service teacher teaching these students, so perhaps teacher experience might have been discussed as well as this is critical to delivering SEM effectively and to knowing the students they teach.

Overall, I believe the framing of the paper could be as noted above - teaching approaches or motivating teaching approaches rather than demotivating teaching approaches paired with meaningful student experience.

A really interesting paper that adds new knowledge to the field.

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The quality of English is quite good, but I have pointed out as many of the grammatical errors that I could to assist in the reviewing of the manuscript.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf