Thank you both for your enthusiastic and positive comments; it's much appreciated.

Samaa, my learners are adult learners whose ages vary but generally it's a mixed group with more women than men (although this year, I had a class with more men in the evening) who all have different backgrounds, abilities and expectations. I had 3 classes studying at Level 2 (Functional English), the smallest had 8 learners and the larger 15. Depending on the activities I'd planned, I'd generally organise learners in groups of 4.

I don't really have a strategy as such, or if I have, I have not yet realised it! I use the work they have done previously to give me an indication of which 'gap' needs to be addressed. I also take their preferences and personal common interests into account unless I feel that someone would benefit from the working 'ethics' from different learners other than the ones they usually pair/work with. The process is quite open and generally, we discuss this the week before so that learners can email me privately if they have any concerns (this can happen at the beginning of the year before the group relationship has developed). Some of the p2p activities I tried in my blended course for learners to complete independently didn't pan out as expected! Still, it's given me valuable feedback which I can use to re-plan next year, especially after researching all that information about personalised learning :D

Howard, I'm going to take a day to think about your suggestion and compose a reply when my brain has recovered from the information overload I subjected it to today.

• Nathalie Stirland

Very interesting post Nathalie, thanks for sharing it. I agree with your point that peer-to-peer learning give us guidelines in how to improve our performance and “highlight weak areas”. I liked how you enriched you post by sharing your own personal experience in peer learning with your students. I wonder what age levels were you teaching and how many students do you put in each group? Do you have a strategy in arranging groups?

• Samaa Haniya

Nathalie, I love your observations of students implementing peer learning and I think your observations are very valuable. I want to encourage you to write a journal article about this experience in which you go into detail about how the students organized, how their roles developed, how they shared and how you noticed the building of their ideas and then relate that to the concepts you discuss. It's very valuable to point out that group learning involves group dynamics, and that is a skill set as well that either facilitates or becomes an obstacle to the official learning goals. Teachers in my school are often unaware that a group process needs to occur in which group roles are established and functional routines are created in order to approach and achieve a learning goal. And you write so well too. I also want to know more about your major point that we have to distinguish between learning assessment and learning. If you have time, say more about that. Thanks for all of the links. Best, Howard

• Howard Robinson