Welcome to this new journal issue. We are back to our traditional format with a history of education corner represented, as usual, by Professor Boguslavsky’s paper, and also with other papers united by a general topic, Young American and Russian scholars share their research. We thought it would be a good idea to introduce a few interesting studies from both sides of the ocean. Although these papers differ in research style, depth, approaches, and methods they are mostly united by the authors’ statuses – these are either young researchers, or doctoral candidates, or doctoral and graduate students. I am also very excited to inform you that from now on we plan to provide space for short book reviews. To inaugurate this section, we have chosen a book by an Israeli Professor Marc Silverman published just a couple of months ago and devoted to the philosophy and pedagogy of Janusz Korczak, whose name and legacy are well known to our frequent readers. But if you are new to the journal, check out the previous issue, # 22, and you will find a number of publications about the ideas of this great humanist of the 20th century and also about different projects inspired by him.

It is my distinct honor and pleasure to present to our readers a new book by Professor Marc Silverman not only because it is so timely and important but also because one of the first articles on Korczak, published in our journal, was also written by Marc (2013), Janusz Korczak's Road to Moral Education, and generated a lot of readers’ traffic and interest. Any academic who has ever put him/herself into the business of composing a book knows how tiring, stressful, and time-consuming it is, and how joyful and relieved one feels to finally see this product out of press. In Dr. Silverman's case, it is not only a relief but also a good reason to receive congratulations for an outstanding accomplishment. In one of the reviews of the book a famous moral philosopher Dwight Boyd states: "For anyone who believes in the importance of respecting children and promoting their moral development in schools today, this is a must-read book. Silverman’s synthesis and interpretation of Korczak's contributions is both masterful and eminently readable."

The paper introduces the reader with the life and professional activities of Vladimir Yakovlevich Stoyunin, a prominent Russian educator, scholar, and public figure. There is a brief overview of Stoyunin's philosophy of education and the periods of its development, together with the axiological foundations of his educational theory aimed at shaping an enlightened person and a true citizen. Vladimir Yakovlevich Stoyunin (1826-1888) is a prominent educator, an outstanding public figure, the most influential methodologist of the Russian language and literature, a researcher and practitioner in the field of female education, an original essay writer, book reviewer, and theater critic. Famous Russian philosopher Nikolay Onufrievich Lossky described Vladimir Stoyunin in the following words: "Stoyunin belonged to the most prominent Russian pedagogues. He became known and immensely loved by his students as both a theoretician of education and a practicing teacher of the Russian language and literature". Stoyunin's biographer Sipovsky pointed out that "Stoyunin's literary and educational works are a significant legacy for all enlightened pedagogues... His works stand out as independent and original... You may see rich content, diligent work, and original point of view in all Stoyunin's works. All of this surely reflects the power of mind and talent"

While it may be tempting to silo issues of gender, (dis)ability, and race/ethnicity in education, as they each have their own specific concerns, at the heart of each of these areas (gender, [dis]ability, and race/ethnicity) lies the issue of equal access to education for all students. In turn, equal access to education for all students is a key component of Social Justice Education. Therefore, many of the concerns of multicultural (or, more nuanced, diversity education), gender equity in education, and special education fall under the umbrella of Social Justice Education, and as such complement each other. After brief comments on important issues currently facing U.S. education, and an overview of the key tenets of Social Justice Education, attention will be given to the development, mission, and practices of multicultural education, special education, and gender equity, respectively, in education in the United States, and how each of these educational areas contributes to the goal of Social Justice Education.

Despite reforms in special education law that mandate the direct involvement of families in discussions regarding their child’s education, parents continue to have limited involvement in the individualized education plan (IEP) process in the United States. The special education system with foreign terminology, numerous acronyms, legal language can lead to confusion for families who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) and who have children with special needs. The focus of this paper is to understand how special education is generally perceived from parental perspectives of those who are CLD and how to increase parent involvement in the individualized education plan process. Insights on the common challenges families who are CLD encounter and strategies will be offered on how teachers can create a positive experience for all families.

Individuals with disabilities lack self-advocacy and self-determination skills as well as independence. As key members of student learning and skill acquisition, paraprofessionals do not receive proper training to increase self-advocacy and self-determination skills in students. Training paraprofessionals to use a variety of prompts and prompting hierarchies with students with disabilities can lead to greater student independence. Paraprofessionals will benefit from further and more advanced training in order to facilitate student independence while increasing student self-advocacy and self-determination skills. Self-advocacy and self-determination skills are extremely important for individuals with disabilities to develop in order to gain independence for themselves. Self-advocacy instruction is found to be so important that IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) include it in their laws so that individuals with disabilities receive it while in school (Fiedler & Danneker, 2007). IDEA emphasizes the importance of teaching and training students with disabilities who need assistive technology devices to communicate as well as transition services that require student participation and student interests and preferences to be taken into account when they are discussed (IDEA, 2015). Individuals being able to communicate for themselves and knowing how to make choices and communicate their interests and opinions are all part of self-advocacy. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides the guidelines for businesses and employers to follow so they do not discriminate against individuals with disabilities (2008). It is also required that employers and businesses provide accommodations for their employees with disabilities (2008). Since ADA is widespread and well known, this creates an opportunity for people with disabilities to be aware of their rights and to advocate for themselves if they are not treated correctly by an employer or business (2008). 

Despite reforms in special education law that mandate the direct involvement of families in discussions regarding their child’s education, parents continue to have limited involvement in the individualized education plan (IEP) process in the United States. The special education system with foreign terminology, numerous acronyms, legal language can lead to confusion for families who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) and who have children with special needs. The focus of this paper is to understand how special education is generally perceived from parental perspectives of those who are CLD and how to increase parent involvement in the individualized education plan process. Insights on the common challenges families who are CLD encounter and strategies will be offered on how teachers can create a positive experience for all families.

Individuals with disabilities lack self-advocacy and self-determination skills as well as independence. As key members of student learning and skill acquisition, paraprofessionals do not receive proper training to increase self-advocacy and self-determination skills in students. Training paraprofessionals to use a variety of prompts and prompting hierarchies with students with disabilities can lead to greater student independence. Paraprofessionals will benefit from further and more advanced training in order to facilitate student independence while increasing student self-advocacy and self-determination skills. Self-advocacy and self-determination skills are extremely important for individuals with disabilities to develop in order to gain independence for themselves. Self-advocacy instruction is found to be so important that IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) include it in their laws so that individuals with disabilities receive it while in school (Fiedler & Danneker, 2007). IDEA emphasizes the importance of teaching and training students with disabilities who need assistive technology devices to communicate as well as transition services that require student participation and student interests and preferences to be taken into account when they are discussed (IDEA, 2015). Individuals being able to communicate for themselves and knowing how to make choices and communicate their interests and opinions are all part of self-advocacy. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides the guidelines for businesses and employers to follow so they do not discriminate against individuals with disabilities (2008). It is also required that employers and businesses provide accommodations for their employees with disabilities (2008). Since ADA is widespread and well known, this creates an opportunity for people with disabilities to be aware of their rights and to advocate for themselves if they are not treated correctly by an employer or business (2008). 

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of using Video Modeling on spontaneous requesting for preschool-aged children with autism. The dependent variable is the frequency of spontaneous requests made by each participant. The independent variable is the Video Modeling intervention. The researchers used a multiple baseline across participants’ design to compare between the number of spontaneous requests made by each participant during baseline, intervention, and maintenance phases. As a result of implementing the Video Modeling intervention, all three participants demonstrated an increase in spontaneous requesting. All participants maintained the behavior requesting skills three weeks after the intervention and after coming back from a three weeks' winter break.

Individuals with disabilities lack self-advocacy and self-determination skills as well as independence. As key members of student learning and skill acquisition, paraprofessionals do not receive proper training to increase self-advocacy and self-determination skills in students. Training paraprofessionals to use a variety of prompts and prompting hierarchies with students with disabilities can lead to greater student independence. Paraprofessionals will benefit from further and more advanced training in order to facilitate student independence while increasing student self-advocacy and self-determination skills. Self-advocacy and self-determination skills are extremely important for individuals with disabilities to develop in order to gain independence for themselves. Self-advocacy instruction is found to be so important that IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) include it in their laws so that individuals with disabilities receive it while in school (Fiedler & Danneker, 2007). IDEA emphasizes the importance of teaching and training students with disabilities who need assistive technology devices to communicate as well as transition services that require student participation and student interests and preferences to be taken into account when they are discussed (IDEA, 2015). Individuals being able to communicate for themselves and knowing how to make choices and communicate their interests and opinions are all part of self-advocacy. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides the guidelines for businesses and employers to follow so they do not discriminate against individuals with disabilities (2008). It is also required that employers and businesses provide accommodations for their employees with disabilities (2008). Since ADA is widespread and well known, this creates an opportunity for people with disabilities to be aware of their rights and to advocate for themselves if they are not treated correctly by an employer or business (2008). 

Scholars who research corpora and its pedagogical implications differ in their views; some believe that corpora should be integrated into teaching practices and teacher training programs, while others caution against such implementations and suggest that critical examinations of corpora use in classroom needs to be in place. To better understand the pedagogical implication of corpora, this study uses surveys and interviews to explore ten pre-service ESL teachers’ perception of using Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) in ESL classrooms. The result suggests that COCA is beneficial for ESL teachers in designing classroom materials and developing digital literacy; however, our finding also indicates that learners' L2 proficiency and logistics need to be taken into consideration when using COCA in classrooms.

The article describes the structural components of the preschool teachers' professional competence. Some of the results are presented and discussed. The authors show the importance of improvements in quality of training future preschool teachers. Trends in the development of modern society, changes in the competitive environment, and the inexorable growth of scientific and technological progress set the dynamics of continuously growing demands for the structure and contents of the educational system, including preschool education. This translates into the need to update professional training of future preschool teachers, especially since in the past preschool teachers were supposed to provide only "supervision and care". Today, it is hardly possible to reduce the requirements for preschool teachers to the above two

In this paper the issues of how to improve student engagement and as a result, student success in schools will be scrutinized. The ideas of Rousseau, Pestalozzi and Montessori will be addressed along with modern educators teaching in predominantly black communities. From these educational professionals, their ideas, and studies done more recently, the author will suggest another factor that can negatively affect student engagement: an inability for students to see themselves having bright futures. Schools are a place where improvements can always be made. In the beginning, the school system in the United States was focused on availability for students. The Old Deluder Satan Act of 1647 and the Land Ordinance of 1785 required settled lands to have space set aside for schools and schoolmasters to teach in these schools. As years continued, the country saw further development of educational infrastructure with the first installation of the Department of Education in 1867. This signified the first step towards monitoring our nation's schools and the country's educational standing compared to other nations.

A significant challenge for all teachers is determining how to get all students to engage in class in a genuine way; this is especially true for math teachers. A guiding principle for all teachers is to develop a connection with students to aid in this engagement. As such, to increase student engagement, especially in schools where students deal with difficult situations (high poverty, high English Language Learner population, low student prerequisite knowledge), making a connection to students is paramount. The idea of developing relationships has been championed by educators throughout history and is vital to increase the engagement of students.

The paper discusses the necessity of arranging a wildlife corner in every classroom in elementary grades. The authors present different possible activities and equipment necessary for such places. The discussion is based on available literature and personal observations. The terms, conditions and strategies of how to develop the basics of an individual ecological culture in schoolchildren are being analyzed as well. For the successful development of children 6-10 years old a holistic and systemic view of the world and a human being’s place in it must be closely and organically linked to the teaching about the world in classrooms that have the so-called wildlife corners. The latter allow studying the objects and phenomena in wild nature. In elementary grades students have a mandatory class called, The world around us. It is very important that students accumulate gradual knowledge about nature while studying this class.