Teachers can also promote feelings of school belonging by being friendly, approachable, and making an effort to connect with their students. Teaching practices that seem to promote students' school belonging include scaffolding learning, commending positive behaviors and performance, allowing students autonomy within the classroom, and using academic pressure, such as holding high expectations of students. The relationship between gender and school belonging is largely inconclusive because research has produced conflicting results. Several studies have found gender differences in perceptions of school belonging: some research indicates that females possess a higher sense of school belonging compared to males, while other studies have found the opposite effect and conclude that males have higher school belonging than females. Other research has demonstrated that school belonging is not at all influenced by gender. Similar to gender, some research on the effect of race and ethnicity on school belonging has found a significant relationship between the two, while other research contradicts these findings. For example, one study found that Black students experience lower feelings of school belonging compared to white students, however, other research has found the opposite pattern or has found no significant influence of race on school belonging at all. A school's climate can have significant consequences for students feeling like they belong at school. School climate broadly refers to the feelings associated with a school's environment and quality; it is considered to have physical (e.g. adequacy of buildings), social (e.g. interpersonal relationships), and academic dimensions (e.g. teaching quality). School climate influences school belonging through its support (or lack thereof) of students' feelings of connection with and attachment to their school. One important facet of school climate is school safety, which is how safe students feel at school. It includes variables such as a school's safety policies, use of discipline, bullying prevalence, and fairness. School safety is regarded as an important determinant of school belonging. Higher perceptions of school safety is associated with students holding greater feelings of school belonging. Research has shown that being involved in extracurricular activities can positively influence students' perceptions of school belonging. For example, researchers Casey Knifsend and Sandra Graham found that students who participated in two extracurricular activities reported greater feelings of school belonging compared to those students who participated in fewer than two. Other studies have replicated this relationship, highlighting the importance of participating in extracurricular activities for developing school belonging. Extracurricular activities may influence school belonging by providing collaborative and long-term interactions between students and their peers. The many determinants of school belonging can be conceptualised in a socio-ecological model.