The VARIATION FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING PROJECT (VITAL), funded by the Hong Kong Education and Manpower Bureau, was based in the Centre for Learning Studies and School Partnership (CLASP) at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) under the leadership of Professor Lo Mun Ling (2005 – 2008). The project was a combination of the Japanese Lesson Studies tradition and Swedish Learning Studies, and was informed by the Variation Learning Theory (Marton & Tsui, 2004). A total of 120 schools were entered into the project in three cohorts (one cohort per year). In this paper an independent evaluation of the project is presented The aims of the evaluation were to provide publicly accessible information about 1) the potential of learning studies as a pedagogical change strategy and 2) the conditions for optimizing this potential. The evaluation report argues that the key question for policy-makers in Hong Kong is not whether the VITAL procedures as a whole can be institutionalized on a large-scale in schools, but whether they have the power when injected into the system to effect sustainable improvements in the pedagogical capabilities of teachers. It concludes that, on the basis of evidence assembled, they do.