“…For instance, Maher et al (2015) argue that placements that facilitate a sense of belonging and perceived value contribute to student-confidence and self-efficacy, while Levett-Jones and Lathlean (2008) found that a sense of belonging contributed to students being more confident in negotiating their learning needs and in asking questions, while an absence of belongingness had a negative impact on students' attitude towards learning and on their confidence to become involved in experiential learning opportunities. Given the importance of developing pre-service teachers' confidence levels (Moody, 2009;Stahl, Sharplin, & Kehrwald, 2016) this emerges as a positive finding for the current study. Related to this issue, several authors (Gray et al, 2017;Van Schagen Johnson, La Paro, & Crosby, 2017) have also identified links between sense of belongingness and increased self-efficacy on the part of placement students, another critical factor for studentteachers in terms of their school placement (Kyriacou & Stephens, 1999).…”