and asked to select a word that best described how confident they felt in mathematics
“most of the time”. They were also asked to respond to three self-belief statements, similar
to those in the MES, using the same five-point Likert scale (e.g., If I don’t give up, I
believe I can do maths work that is hard).
While the same stimulus questions were used with each interview, different groups
took a slightly different direction depending on participants’ responses. This informal
structure enabled participants to elaborate upon each other’s ideas and contribute freely to
the discussion, enabling a ‘shared understanding’ to be collected while also gaining
individual views from specific participants. Each group interview was audio recorded and
transcribed. The recordings were listened to numerous times and transcripts were
independently analysed by two researchers who came to consensus regarding recurring
responses, themes, patterns and inferences made by students regarding the formation of
and experiences influencing their mathematical self-belief (