At present, there is not a completely consistent understanding of the concept of model education in Chinese academic circles. Xu Shen, an educator in the Han Dynasty, pointed out in Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "Teaching is effective when it is used above; Education, just adopt a son. Ye Lan combined these two words in Introduction to Education and pointed out: "It can be understood as an influence of adults on children, the purpose of which is to make the educated become excellent, and the means is imitation. "

In addition, some scholars believe that "model education is a way to influence the educated with lofty thoughts, excellent achievements and exemplary behavior education", and some scholars believe that "model education is a process and method for educators to choose corresponding models according to the educational purpose and the physical and mental development characteristics of the educated, to inspire and guide the educated to imitate and learn their behavior habits, knowledge and skills, and ideology and morality."

To sum up, model education is an educational activity in which educators, according to the educational purpose and the characteristics of the physical and mental development of the educated, take the special personality image of the model as the carrier, stimulate the intrinsic motivation of the educated through the guidance of the educators and the life practice of the educated, promote the educated to adjust their cognition based on the moral spirit of the model, and arouse emotional resonance, thus increasing the psychological identity of the educated, and finally internalizing it into the spiritual quality of the model through subjective efforts. The purpose of model education for the educated is to improve their spiritual realm, that is to say, model education will transform the noble quality embodied by the model into the quality of the educated in some way, so that the educated will continue to develop and change, and finally reach the spiritual realm of the model, and even surpass the model.