Schools throughout the world are experiencing a period of rapid change and, in many cases

, are finding that extremely【M1】______ difficult to achieve a balance among a number of critical concerns. Some of the issues that educators and schools are facing include certainty about what academic and cultural knowledge and skills【M2】______ will be needed by students in the future, wholesale revisions of curricula, experimentation in teaching strategies, the need for teachers and students to become aware and competent in using【M3】______ new technologies, dramatic changes in bureaucratic and legislating【M4】______ policies and regulations, and increased demands on teachers. With the exception of the education system in the United States, perhaps no education system has been studied more【M5】______ intensively than of Japan. In 2001, in a well-balanced presentation【M6】______ of the Japanese model of schooling, including its similarities to and fro differences with that in the United States, Tsuneyoshi【M7】______ characterized the American approach to education as one that places an emphasis on competitiveness, individual attention from teachers along with individual accomplishment on the part of students, development of cognitive abilities, and separation of teachers in terms of their disciplines. In contrary, the Japanese【M8】______ approach(particularly at the elementary school level)focuses on the "whole child"; close interactions between teachers and pupils for long periods of time in cooperative settings with attention to collected goals, tasks, and rewards; and efforts to provide the same【M9】______ or very similar treatment for all students. One advantage of the American approach that is seriously missed in the Japanese【M10】______ approach is the formers attention to diversity and a sensitivity and concern for minority rights.

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