The importance of competence-based science education in early childhood has been wellresearched and is well-known internationally. In Japan, on the other hand, life science classes do not exist in the kindergarten. In this research, analyzing educational standards in the United States of America, Australia, and the Philippines, the contents of these early life science lessons, including each competency area, were categorized. A practical survey in Finland showed that although science class did not exist in the early childhood education there, the contents that connect to the basic competencies of all the four competency domains in life science were nonetheless included in their education. Comparing these findings to the five categories in the Japanese Course of Study for kindergarten, it was suggested that cross-category life science learning content is recommended in Japanese early childhood education to help construct the learners' basic life science competencies that they will use throughout their education and beyond.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.