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AGENT SKILLS STANDARD FIELDS (v2)

name: belonging-classroom-culture-designer description: "Design targeted interventions that strengthen belonging and inclusion for specific classroom dynamics. Use when students feel isolated, cliques form, or new students need integrating." disable-model-invocation: false user-invocable: true effort: medium

EXISTING FIELDS

skill_id: "wellbeing-motivation-agency/belonging-classroom-culture-designer" skill_name: "Belonging & Classroom Culture Designer" domain: "wellbeing-motivation-agency" version: "1.0" evidence_strength: "strong" evidence_sources:

• "Walton & Cohen (2011) — A brief social-belonging intervention improves academic and health outcomes of minority students"
• "Yeager & Walton (2011) — Social-psychological interventions in education"
• "Baumeister & Leary (1995) — The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation"
• "Goodenow (1993) — Classroom belonging among early adolescent students"
• "Murphy & Zirkel (2015) — Race and belonging in school: how anticipated and experienced belonging affect choice, persistence, and performance" input_schema: required:
  • field: "classroom_context" type: "string" description: "Description of the class — subject, year group, and any relevant features of the group dynamic"
  • field: "belonging_concern" type: "string" description: "The specific belonging issue — e.g. isolated students, cliques, marginalised groups, new students, post-transition anxiety" optional:
  • field: "student_level" type: "string" description: "Age/year group"
  • field: "subject_area" type: "string" description: "The curriculum subject"
  • field: "student_profiles" type: "array" description: "From context engine: class composition, social dynamics, SEN, EAL, Pupil Premium"
  • field: "current_practices" type: "string" description: "What the teacher already does to build belonging — so recommendations don't duplicate"
  • field: "time_available" type: "string" description: "How much time can be allocated to belonging-building practices" output_schema: type: "object" fields:
  • field: "belonging_practices" type: "array" description: "Specific, named classroom practices that build belonging — not generic advice but implementable actions"
  • field: "routine_integration" type: "object" description: "How to embed belonging practices into existing routines rather than adding extra activities"
  • field: "language_guide" type: "object" description: "Specific teacher language that signals belonging vs. language that inadvertently threatens it"
  • field: "monitoring_indicators" type: "array" description: "Observable signs that belonging is improving — what to watch for" chains_well_with:
• "motivation-diagnostic-task-redesign"
• "trauma-informed-practice-designer"
• "ruler-emotional-literacy-sequence"
• "restorative-practice-protocol-designer" teacher_time: "3 minutes" tags: ["belonging", "inclusion", "classroom-culture", "relationships", "equity", "marginalisation"]

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Belonging & Classroom Culture Designer

What This Skill Does

Generates specific, implementable classroom practices that build belonging for all students — with particular attention to students who are most likely to experience belonging uncertainty (new students, minority students, students with SEN, EAL students, students transitioning between schools). The critical insight from Walton & Cohen's research is that belonging is not a personality trait — it is a perception that is highly sensitive to environmental cues. Small signals from the classroom environment ("You matter here," "People like you succeed here," "Difficulty is normal, not a sign you don't belong") can have disproportionate effects on engagement, persistence, and achievement. The output includes specific practices (not generic advice like "be welcoming"), language guides (what to say and what to avoid), integration into existing routines (with preparation and follow-up costs made explicit), and monitoring indicators (how to know it's working). AI is specifically valuable here because belonging research identifies subtle environmental cues that most teachers don't consciously design for — and because the practices that build belonging for marginalised students often benefit ALL students.

Evidence Foundation

Walton & Cohen (2011) studied a specific brief intervention with college students; its reported achievement-gap result is not an effect estimate for these school classroom routines. Transfer to this setting is a design inference to check, not a promised reduction. The mechanism is not complicated: when students worry they don't belong, they interpret setbacks as confirming evidence ("I got a low mark because I don't fit in here"). When that worry is addressed, the same setback is interpreted as a normal part of learning ("Everyone struggles sometimes"). Baumeister & Leary (1995) established belongingness as a fundamental human need — as basic as food and safety. When the need is unmet, cognitive resources are diverted from learning to belonging-monitoring: "Does the teacher like me? Do the other students accept me? Am I welcome here?" This monitoring consumes working memory and attention that should be directed toward learning. Goodenow (1993) found that classroom belonging predicted motivation, effort, and achievement in early adolescence — students who felt they belonged tried harder, persisted longer, and learned more. Yeager & Walton (2011) showed that social-psychological interventions (belonging, growth mindset, purpose) are most effective when they are "stealthy" — embedded in normal classroom practice rather than announced as special programmes. Murphy & Zirkel (2015) extended this to demonstrate that anticipated belonging (expecting to belong vs. expecting not to) affects students' choices before they even arrive — students who anticipate not belonging are less likely to choose challenging courses, join clubs, or seek help.

Input Schema

The teacher must provide:

• Classroom context: The class and its features. e.g. "Year 7 English, 28 students, first term after primary-secondary transition. Mixed-ability. Several students from different primary schools who don't know anyone." / "Year 10 GCSE Science, small class of 18, mostly boys, three girls who rarely speak in class."
• Belonging concern: The specific issue. e.g. "Several students are isolated — they don't interact with anyone and look uncomfortable" / "Two students recently arrived from another country and speak limited English" / "There are strong cliques and some students are excluded from group work"

Optional (injected by context engine if available):

• Student level: Year group
• Subject area: The curriculum subject
• Student profiles: Class composition, social dynamics
• Current practices: What the teacher already does
• Time available: Time that can be allocated

Prompt

You are an expert in belonging, classroom culture, and social-psychological interventions in education, with deep knowledge of Walton & Cohen's (2011) belonging intervention research, Baumeister & Leary's (1995) belongingness theory, Goodenow's (1993) work on classroom belonging, and Yeager & Walton's (2011) principles for effective social-psychological interventions. You understand that belonging is a perception shaped by environmental cues — and that teachers can deliberately design those cues.

IMPORTANT: Embed routine practices unobtrusively (informed by Yeager & Walton, 2011) — embedded in normal classroom routines, not announced as special programmes. Do not publicly single out a learner as isolated. This does not prohibit voluntary discussion of belonging or explicit, respectful individual support. This approach often backfires because it draws attention to the very belonging threat it's trying to address. Instead, design practices that communicate belonging to everyone, with particular benefit to those who need it most.

IMPORTANT: Belonging practices must be genuine, not performative. Students — especially adolescents — can detect inauthenticity. "Forced fun" activities that feel artificial will be counterproductive. The practices should feel like a natural part of how the classroom operates.

Your task is to design belonging practices for:

**Classroom context:** {{classroom_context}}
**Belonging concern:** {{belonging_concern}}

The following optional context may or may not be provided. Use whatever is available; ignore any fields marked "not provided."

**Student level:** {{student_level}} — if not provided, infer from the classroom context.
**Subject area:** {{subject_area}} — if not provided, infer from the context.
**Student profiles:** {{student_profiles}} — if not provided, design for the stated belonging concern.
**Current practices:** {{current_practices}} — if not provided, design from a baseline of standard classroom practice.
**Time available:** {{time_available}} — if absent, prioritise small routine changes and state preparation/check-in time rather than claiming no cost.

Check learners' own views privately and voluntarily, including preferred communication, access supports and safe grouping. Quietness, eye contact, speech or arrival patterns are ambiguous observations, not belonging scores or diagnoses. Do not withhold needed help to avoid stigma. Suspected bullying, discrimination or unsafe relationships require the appropriate school protective/pastoral response; do not normalise harm as something everyone must endure.

Apply these principles:

1. **Normalise difficulty (Walton & Cohen, 2011):**
   - Normalise learning difficulty without claiming everyone struggles identically. Offer needed help respectfully: "You belong here; let's find the support that helps you access this task."
   - Use stories of struggle: "When I first learned this, I found it confusing too" or "Last year's class also found this challenging at first."
   - Difficulty does not define who belongs. Acknowledge individual needs and retain accommodations without public labelling.

2. **Signal that "people like you" succeed here (Murphy & Zirkel, 2015):**
   - Students need to see examples of people like them succeeding in this subject and classroom.
   - Representation in materials, examples, and stories matters.
   - Use language that explicitly includes: "In this class, we all..." / "Everyone here..."

3. **Create structured interaction (Goodenow, 1993):**
   - Isolated students rarely self-initiate interaction. The teacher must CREATE opportunities for interaction through structured pair/group work.
   - Structure is essential: "Talk to your partner about..." gives isolated students permission to interact without the social risk of initiating.
   - Use structured pairing with private learner input on safety and access. Rotation and bounded self-selection are options; never pair a learner with someone unsafe or remove a trusted support merely to rotate.

4. **Build belonging through contribution, not just inclusion (Yeager & Walton, 2011):**
   - Being included (having a seat, being allowed to participate) is not the same as belonging (feeling valued, needed, important to the group).
   - Students feel belonging when they CONTRIBUTE — when their ideas matter, when the group needs their input, when they add something others don't.
   - Design tasks where every student has a role that the group depends on.

5. **Monitor and adjust (Goodenow, 1993):**
   - Belonging is not built in one lesson. It requires consistent signals over time.
   - Notice participation, exclusion and help-seeking in context, then check the learner's perspective. Do not interpret eye contact, quietness or arrival alone as belonging; culture, disability, language and practical barriers may affect them.