A Triangulated Study on the Impact of Digitally-Based Exams on Iranian EFL Teachers’ Development and Job Satisfaction

Innovative testing techniques are of great importance in modern classrooms (Breland, Lee, & Murake, 2005; Bangs, 2011). The institute under study created an innovative achievement test compatible with its blended learning program, otherwise known as „digitally-based exams‟ (Kianoosh & Soltani, 2018a; Kianoosh & Soltani, 2018b). It was seen that the main benefit of these exams was its environmentally-friendly nature, which led to a decrease in wasted paper. The teachers‟ perceptions on this type of exam also showed that teachers who used digitally-based exams generally had more positive ideas. The current study sought to understand whether digitally-based exams had a significant effect on teachers‟ self-development and job satisfaction. 60 teachers were employed to participate in this study, 30 of whom used the digitally-based exams and 30 who used the traditional paper-and-pencil exams. Kassabgy, Boraie, and Schmidt‟s (2001) job satisfaction questionnaire which held 28 items was used to estimate the teacher‟s levels of job satisfaction and was distributed among all of the participants. The questionnaire results of the two groups of teachers were compared to see whether the use of digitally-based exams had a significant impact on job satisfaction or not. Then, 15 of the teachers who used the digitally-based exams were randomly selected to participate in semi-constructed interviews which lasted about ten minutes and were asked two questions to analyze their ideas on their own development. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, key words were extracted, and the results were examined. This study was carried out as the first phase of a study aiming to design an assessment-method satisfaction scale.

کلیدواژه ها:

Digitally-Based Exams ، Paper-and-Pencil Exams ، Teacher Development ، Job Satisfaction