This paper draws on two studies, one conducted by each author, where procedures for gaining insights into people's beliefs about mathematics and learning were developed or adapted for use by the researcher. In this paper we discuss the use in each study of variations of the procedure called "Pupil Perceptions of Effective Learning Environments in Mathematics" (PPELEM). The paper demonstrates the flexibility of PPELEM as a data collection tool and shows that, even with a large age difference of respondents, the procedure can be used as a prompt for both adults and primary school children and provides insights into beliefs.