The main educational idea of European new educational trend of thought is to construct a new behaviorism learning theory, that is, educational research should take "the behavior of teaching and learning" as the research object.

The fifties and sixties was an important turning point in the development of western capitalism, as well as in the development of western education. The theory of human capital and the theory of functionalism education have been put forward one after another, and the education investment fever has swept the west and the third world countries.

However, the economic development in the 1970s showed that education investment did not bring economic prosperity, and hope turned into disappointment, and disappointment turned into a comprehensive investigation of the real education system and a reflection on the history of western education. The main ideological trend introduced in this section is the product of this kind of investigation and reflection.

The contemporary western educational thoughts involved include existentialism, new behaviorism, structuralism, analytical educational philosophy, lifelong education and humanistic education.

Existentialism education thought is consistent with the emergence and development of existentialism philosophy. Existentialist education thought and practice first appeared in Europe before World War I, such as Nietzsche's On the Future of German Education System and Somerset School founded by 1926, but it was after World War II that existentialist education thought had a great influence on education theory and practice.

Existentialism itself contains an educational thought. This educational thought includes two aspects: on the one hand, existentialism fundamentally opposes education, especially hates and denies existing school education; On the other hand, existentialism puts forward a unique view of education. Only by combining these two aspects can we fully understand the existential educational thought.