Professional learning matters, few school leaders would disagree.

Yet one of the biggest challenges facing schools today is finding professional development that is genuinely relevant, fits alongside teachers’ busy working lives, and leads to meaningful changes in classroom practice.

This summer, we set out to explore what might happen if teachers were given the opportunity to focus on just one aspect of great teaching.

The result was the Summer ’26 Great Teaching Questioning Challenge.

Over six weeks, 558 teachers from 80 schools – the majority experiencing the Great Teaching Toolkit for the first time – took part in a structured programme focused on improving classroom questioning. Teachers selected a goal, explored evidence-informed techniques, applied them in their classrooms and reflected on the impact on their pupils.

The findings have been encouraging.

From the 147 teachers who completed the end-of-Challenge survey and agreed for their responses to be used in reporting:

• 97% reported improvements in their questioning practice.
• 98% were confident those improvements had a positive impact on pupils’ learning.
• 80% found the professional learning manageable alongside their existing workload.
• 93% said continuing this kind of professional learning would be valuable.

Perhaps most importantly, teachers didn’t simply report changes in themselves—they reported changes in their classrooms.

The most common improvements were:

• Increased student participation
• More students contributing responses
• Better insight into student understanding
• Improved classroom discussion
• Deeper student answers

One participant reflected:

“I’ve been so busy rushing through things to never stop and think: ‘Are my pupils thinking?'”

Another described the impact of introducing structured questioning routines:

“Previously silent students now explain their halving strategies with confidence.”

For us, these findings reinforce something we’ve believed for a long time. Professional learning doesn’t need to be overwhelming to make a difference.

When it is focused, evidence-informed, connected to classroom practice and supported by reflection, teachers can make meaningful improvements that benefit pupils.

Of course, this is only the beginning. The Challenge focused on just one element of the Model for Great Teaching, but the enthusiasm shown by participating teachers suggest that teachers are eager to continue building their expertise.

We’ve brought together the full findings, analysis and reflections in our new Summer ’26 Great Teaching Questioning Challenge Report.

We hope it contributes to the wider conversation about what effective professional learning can, and should, look like.