This paper interrogates the recontextualisation of available assessment items developed for research purposes that measure mathematical knowledge for teaching, into scenarios for use in qualitative studies related to mathematics teachers’ subject matter knowledge. It draws from interviews with teacher participants in the Wits Maths Connect-Secondary project and their responses to two selected items from the Learning Mathematics for Teaching (LMT) project. The analysis shows that carefully constructed multiple choice items in the domain of (mathematics) subject matter knowledge have much potential in provoking teachers’ talk and their mathematical reasoning in relation to practice-based scenarios; and exploring with teachers a range of connected knowledge related to the teaching of a particular concept or topic. We argue that productive use of such items further requires that researcher make explicit the mathematical ideas they expect to explore and assess in the developed items.