Abstract
This study aimed to explore the effects of understanding early childhood education and care (ECEC) on instructions in elementary schools through interviews with elementary school teachers with both elemenrary and ECEC licenses. The results clarified that practical information about school preparation, such as the instructional techniques used in ECEC settings and the educational environment during infancy, is useful for instructions in the lower grades of elementary school; by contrast, it is rarely used in higher grades. Additionally, ECEC-specific viewpoints, education based on understanding of children and through the environment, are applicable to the higher grades of elementary school. Taken together, it is important to encourage elementary school teachers, not only teachers of lower grades of elementary school but also teachers of higher grades, to work on the close collaboration of elementary school education with ECEC.
