The Attitudes Working Group is a non-profit organisation established in 2007, made up of education professionals and researchers. Most members have undergone a specific training process including self-regulation, active methodologies, competence development and formative assessment strategies. In addition, a significant proportion of members train teachers as trainers. Another part of the group is responsible for research and scientific and pedagogical publications. 

The group has numerous resources on the website related to the assessment of competencies developed through formative assessment. These are shared, free of charge, so that any teacher can use and adapt them freely. 

The group has a large bibliography that presents good practices at all educational levels. The group has also developed a competency integration project (in Spanish). This project aims to promote the integration of key competences in the school curricula, based on a sequence of competencies organised according to cycles and courses.

A book they published (in Spanish) called MITAA (an acronym in Spanish for an “An integral model for an active transition towards autonomy”) offers teachers ways to integrate competency-based learning, in which formative assessment plays a central role. The Attitudes Working Group proposes that formative assessment is the first methodological change necessary to involve students more in their learning. In this sense, MITAA is an approach that suggests implementing formative assessment regularly, especially when the aim is to develop key competences such as ‘learning to learn’.

The Attitudinal Style (webpage in Spanish) is a three-dimensional approach (competency development, self-regulation, and formative assessment) defined by the working group. The development of autonomy, based on self-regulation processes, requires two key elements: a) the use of planners that allows students to organise work both in class and at home if the scheduled tasks are not completed, and b) the use of assessment instruments that create autonomy in obtaining information about the activities carried out. 

The group proposes that assessment should be participatory, having the teacher and student work together on all aspects of it. Self-assessment, peer-assessment, assessment within a workgroup (intra-group self-assessment), between groups (inter-group peer-assessment) or the teacher assessment, involve all agents in the classroom. The teachers’ assessment should be compared to the students’ self-assessment. The fewer differences between the two, the more adjusted is the students’ ability to make accurate assessments of their own work, which is essential for the effective development of student autonomy. 

By making assessment a regular practice, both teachers and students can get better at reflecting on learning as well as giving and receiving feedback that can be used to improve. Finally, the purpose of the Attitudinal Style is to promote inclusion in classes and to ensure all students have positive experiences, which also promotes collaboration among peers.

The workgroup aims to promote the following educational principles:

1)    Reduction of the teachers’ authoritative intervention: teachers make fewer explanations, and explanations are always focused on new elements for the students.

2)    Responsible participation in learning: students make decisions about aspects relevant to their learning, both related to the organisation and assessment of their tasks.

3)    Autonomous planning: students carry out a prior planning of their unit tasks, which they must subsequently complete and evaluate daily using individual work plans.

4)    Self-management of homework: students will be able to manage the context in which homework is carried out (at home or in class), thus favouring the reduction of the volume of homework.

5)    Self-correction of tasks: different assessment instruments can be used to provide more independence from the teaching staff during the classes, with the teachers’ choice (checklists, verbal scales, assessment scales, etc.).

6)    Continuous formative and shared assessment: turning formative assessment into everyday practice helps students understand that assessment can generate and improve learning.

7)    Effective time management: perhaps one of the biggest problems in developing autonomy, since students do not usually manage time well. In this way, class time will be used better.

8)    Contextualised and individualised learning: each student will receive an assignment of tasks according to their needs and abilities. Learning to use and manage a planner, linked to the selection of compulsory, optional and complementary activities, will allow teachers to adapt to the needs and interests of students.

9)    Inclusive treatment of diversity: all professionals who perform supportive functions will be encouraged to stay as long as possible in the classroom. This can encourage student-centred teaching and co-teaching.

10)    Providing an autonomous work environment: the necessary materials to carry out the tasks, including assessment instruments, will be available to students from the very first day.

Rubrics are useful because they provide students with clear descriptions of the aspects achieved and those that can be improved. However, when the rubric is used for grading and qualitative criteria are adapted to quantitative values, the result is often unrealistic. The working group’s experience in teacher training helped them realise that many teachers, when they grade achievement levels (descriptors that identify students’ achievement), come up with a numerical assessment that does not correspond to what they would have valued globally. They have admitted to changing the previously graded achievement levels so that the assessment ends up being as fitting as possible.

This indicates that the instrument does not meet teachers’ needs. Therefore, the workgroup has developed two alternatives to rubrics: Assessment Scales and Graded Scales. To illustrate how these rubrics and scales look like, see an example about video tutorials and an example about rope tension.

The assessment scale (article in Spanish) offers more precision in defining the criteria/aspects and the levels of achievement for each criterion. It basically allows a teacher to allocate different weights to each criterion (each can make up a different proportion of the total grade). Each criterion is descriptively subdivided into as many achievement levels as possible to identify said achievement. In addition, minimum performance requirements can be established for a positive assessment, which is very useful to determine what has been achieved and what remains to be achieved. The Attitudes website shows examples of how to apply rubrics to teachers (in Spanish). 

In other cases, a certain degree of flexibility is required to assess student work with a creativity or originality factor without losing objectivity. In these cases, trying to numerically value these aspects seems inappropriate and, in general, they should not surpass the more technical and objective aspects.

In the graded scale (article in Spanish), the description of the performance levels remains the same as in the rubrics, but these are organised into sections. Accordingly, it solves the problem of a lack of precision in the identification of some aspects. It also gives the ability to prioritise a certain student when their academic improvement is just beginning (with some students, it may be important to have this flexibility without “lying” about the grades). When the student has improved a lot (especially in terms of motivation), this can be a perfect instrument to motivate him/her. It is also useful when the student’s activity has a creative aspect that should be recognised.