The concept of education, that is, the concept of educational methods, is the rational understanding and subjective requirement of "what education should be" formed by the educational subject in teaching practice and educational thinking activities, including educational purpose, educational mission, educational purpose, educational ideal, educational goal, educational requirement and educational principle. The concept of education is defined as follows: "The concept of education is the educational ideal that people pursue, and it is based on the laws of education." He added: "The scientific educational concept is a kind of' foresight', which can correctly reflect the essence of education and the characteristics of the times and scientifically point out the direction of progress." Of course, "the educational idea is not the educational reality, and its realization is a long-term struggle process ..." It can be seen that Professor Wang Jisheng linked the educational idea with the educational ideal and had the foresight to grasp the educational ideal.

Professor Ping Li and others think in the article "Where is the Puzzlement of Education-Reflection on Educational Idea": "Educational idea is an ideal, eternal and spiritual paradigm about educational development. The educational concept reflects the essential characteristics of education and fundamentally answers why education should be run. " (Note: Ping Li and Zhong Minghua: "Where is the Puzzlement of Education-Reflections on Educational Ideas", Shanghai Higher Education Research, No.5, 1998. The so-called essential feature of education is that education is the fundamental feature that distinguishes practical activities from other social activities. Therefore, Professor Ping Li put forward his educational thought from the perspective of educational ontology and epistemology, that is, from a basic category of educational philosophy. Professor Chen Guisheng's understanding of educational thought is very unique. (Note: See Chen Guisheng's Discrimination of Pedagogy Horizon, East China Normal University Press, 1997, p. 4- 12. In his book Analysis of Pedagogy, he pointed out that there is a phenomenon of "generalization" of educational concepts in pedagogy sentences, which is mainly caused by the confusion between educational concepts, especially the confusion of replacing educational concepts with educational concepts. He cited the concepts of "curriculum" and "teaching" as examples to illustrate this phenomenon.