AM-ME: Collect Qualitative Data

Our approach was iterative and intentional, with each method building on what we learned from the last. Our qualitative methods allowed us to capture how students and teachers experience math engagement firsthand, ensuring that the AM-ME survey reflected the ways students think about, talk about, and engage with math in their daily lives. 

Throughout the process, we applied principles from the Ecological Validity Model to ensure the measure reflected students' real-world experiences—refining wording, cultural relevance, and how engagement is expressed in different contexts. This meant clarifying language to be more accessible, ensuring concepts resonated with students, and accounting for the different ways students engage with math. 

Cognitive interviews 

Cognitive interviews are a qualitative method used to evaluate how participants interpret survey questions, helping researchers identify unclear wording, and potential misunderstandings. As part of the AM-ME project, we conducted cognitive interviews with 39 students and teachers to refine the initial AM-ME items we developed. These interviews helped ensure that AM-ME items were clear, culturally relevant, and accurately captured students' and teachers’ perspectives on math engagement. 

• Approach: Researchers conducted semi-structured cognitive interviews with students and teachers to assess how they interpret and respond to survey items. Participants were asked to think aloud as they read each question, providing insight into their understanding and thought processes. 
• Key topics: Interviews explored how participants interpret survey questions, the clarity and relevance of wording, and any challenges in understanding specific terms. Discussions also examined whether the items accurately reflect students’ math engagement experiences and teachers’ classroom observations. 

By gathering feedback from both students and teachers, we refined AM-ME items to be clearer, more culturally relevant, and better aligned with the ways students and educators understand and experience math engagement. 

Student focus groups 

Focus groups are a qualitative method that brings participants together for guided discussions, allowing researchers to explore shared experiences, perspectives, and themes that might not emerge in one-on-one interviews. For the AM-ME project, we conducted focus groups with 134 middle and high school students across 24 groups to gain deeper insight into how they experience math engagement. These discussions helped us better understand how students conceptualize and engage with math, what motivates them, and the challenges they face in sustaining engagement. 

• Approach: Researchers guided conversations using a semi-structured discussion guide, incorporating direct questioning, student reflections, and interactive activities such as brainstorming, gallery walks, and identity reflections. 
• Key topics: Focus groups explored math engagement, including what makes classes engaging, how students stay motivated, and the challenges they face. Discussions covered what engagement looks like, how students define a “math person,” and strategies that support learning. Students also reflected on peer collaboration, classroom supports, study habits, and the role of identity and classroom climate in shaping their math engagement. 

By allowing students to express their experiences in their own words, these focus groups provided valuable context for refining how we define and measure math engagement.

Teacher interviews 

Interviews are a qualitative method that allows researchers to gather in-depth, firsthand perspectives from participants. While the AM-ME project primarily focused on student experiences, we also interviewed 12 middle and high school math teachers to understand how engagement happens in the classroom. These interviews provided valuable context on instructional practices, classroom climate, and strategies teachers use to foster engagement, complementing the perspectives shared by students. 

• Approach: Researchers conducted semi-structured one-on-one interviews with math teachers to explore how they define and support student engagement, instructional strategies that foster learning, and factors that shape classroom climate. 
• Key topics: Interviews examined how teachers assess engagement, strategies for keeping students motivated, and the challenges they face in supporting all learners. Discussions also covered how classroom norms and instructional tools, and students’ identities influence engagement in math. 

Teachers’ perspectives helped us refine the AM-ME by ensuring it captured not just student experiences, but also the instructional strategies and classroom conditions that shape engagement.