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A range of deficits can cause children difficulty understanding speech in challenging listening environments, like noisy classrooms. Children with listening difficulties are at risk of having poor long-term academic outcomes and social skills (Barry et al., 2015), especially when clinicians cannot detect or remediate their specific deficits. Deficits in auditory, speech, language, or cognition abilities may present in similar manners on the individual child. Currently, it is difficult to determine the cause of these difficulties. A systematic approach to differentiate between these causes has been devised (Dillon & Cameron, 2021). The proposed approach is a tri-level test battery, a combination of top-level speech perception ability, mid-level phoneme identification ability, and low-level acoustic resolution ability (Dillon & Cameron, 2021). In conjunction with cognitive test scores, the combined approach will allow for differentiation of the cause of the observed listening deficit. A richer understanding of the underlying reasons for listening difficulties is central to developing customized efficacious interventions to avoid and alleviate long-term consequences.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-265) and index

This study used an Action Research Method to investigate ways to improve the thinking and reasoning skills of grade eight science students in an under-resourced school in Karachi. The students' rote learning patterns were challenged using the schema provided by Blooms' taxonomy of learning domains. A cooperative learning environment was generated with a renewed investment plan, a restructured lesson plan and an intensive workshop with the group leaders. These interventions were done with the help of the preliminary data that was collected through questionnaires. The outcomes of the action research method showed a positive correlation between cooperative learning approach and academic achievement of the students.