Teacher and Parent Perception of Biophilic Conditions in Primary-School Environments and Their Impact on Children’s Wellbeing

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper examines how the physical environment of primary schools affects children’s preferences, performance and behaviour, as perceived by teachers and parents. Studies show that the greater natural environment in the school increases teachers’ and children’s feelings and demands for these attributes. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of adequate facilities and the role of teachers in managing classroom conditions. Furthermore, the study proposes a framework for evaluating biophilic traits in school settings and suggests that biophilic policies should be a key consideration in educational programs for better child outcomes.

I find this work to be highly justified due to its vast practical implications. Congratulations to the authors for their innovative idea and diligent efforts.

The structure of the paper is excellent, but I have some suggestions for improving this scholarly work:

1. Introduction: The introduction lacks originality and relevance. Consider adding an initial hypothesis that you will substantiate through scientific methods in the synthesis of research.

2. Methods: Adhere to MDPI formatting for tables.

3. Provide additional details about the methodology, including the date, duration, and number of participants in the study. Also, describe how you issued the call for participation and collected data (e.g., Google Forms, sheets, etc.).

4. Figure 1: Provide a title for the figure, and include its description within the text in either the Results or Discussion section, referring to the figure accordingly.

5. Consider expanding the discussion in section 4.3 to further demonstrate your critical analysis of the obtained results in relation (or not) to the specific literature.

6. In section 4.4, have you considered that experts from various fields could conduct similar studies to confirm (or not) the initial hypothesis?

Kind regards

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your detailed feedback. Please see below the response for each point and the manuscript attached with the adjustments. 

Point 1: We have carefully considered whether adding a hypothesis would be appropriate. However, since this is an exploratory study, we think the aims and objectives are better explained as they are. For more clarity, and for helping to clarify the relevance of the Introduction, we adjusted the objectives in section 1.5.

Point 2: The format of the tables was adjusted.

Point 3: Additional information was added to sections 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 as suggested.

Point 4: Adjustments were applied as per suggestion.

Point 5: We had already included a discussion on this point in section 4.3 which we have now expanded but kept it succinct for clarity.

Point 6: We carefully considered this point. We think this is covered in sections about the contributions, limitations, and future research suggestions described in section 4.4.  We added an introduction note to section 4.4 to make aspect which you suggest clearer. We also restructured section 4.1 to make the reference to the objectives more obvious.

Kind regards

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper approaches the study of biophilic conditions in primary schools from a very clear and structured point of view. Even when I am not English native-speaker, I have enjoyed the easy-to-red text.

My only reflection to add for the authors, to consider just if they so wish, has to be with the questions of the design and composition of the architectural space. According to the accurate conclusions, a higher biophilic environment in educational architecture increases teachers’ and children’s sensitivity, awareness and demand towards biophilic features, proved to be related, somehow, to people’s happiness through environment. To assess design –or composition– could be, on the other hand, much more a qualitative than a quantitative matter: could it be even outlined some questions concerning architectural order, direct sunlight, type of natural light, arrangement of plant elements, use of colours, or any other qualitative aspect directly related to architectural elements?

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for raising a very interesting point. After careful consideration we decided not to take action on this suggestion as the manuscript is already relatively long, and to address the comment fully, a suitable discussion would be needed.

Kind regards