Since 1980s, the goal of preschool education in developed countries has changed obviously, that is, from "intellectual education center" to focusing on the overall development direction. In the 1960s, under the pressure of the Cold War and the "knowledge explosion", the United States, Japan, the Soviet Union and other countries carried out curriculum reform in primary and secondary schools on the principle of high, new and difficult, and the teaching content was gradually dispersed. In particular, American psychologist Bloom attaches great importance to children's early intellectual development, and strengthening early intellectual development has become one of the important contents of educational reform in the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan and Germany. In this case, people often misunderstand early education as early intellectual development, which leads to "intellectual education center" and ignores the social and emotional development of preschool children.

With the end of the cold war era and the return of humanistic education ideas, since the 1980s, educators all over the world have called for rectification.

1The central content of the "Japan-US-Europe Conference on Early Childhood Education and Care" held in Japan in June, 1985 was to ask the "intellectual education center" to fully develop children's personality. People realize that education is interrelated, and social and emotional problems should be regarded as an important part of intellectual development. 1April, 990, Japan began to implement the newly revised Essentials of Kindergarten Education, which explicitly included interpersonal relationship, environment and performance in kindergarten education, so as to correct the tendency of attaching importance to intellectual education and promote the good development of children in an innocent, lively and happy atmosphere. Preschool education in the United States also generally attaches importance to promoting children's intelligence, social communication ability, values and self-awareness through social education.

However, the problem of intellectual education center has not been fundamentally solved. Because parents are eager for their children's success and society needs high-level talents, adults still place too high expectations on their children. When children were very young, they were educated in a certain subject or aspect such as calculation, reading, gymnastics, ballet, piano, bodybuilding and martial arts. This single skill training is obviously one-sided, and it ignores children's interests in the teaching process, which is too formal and strict, and has a bad influence on children's personality development. Therefore, education experts in various countries believe that respect. It is still an important task for educators to study and understand the characteristics of young children and provide education suitable for their development. They advocate that children should learn spontaneously and independently through natural experience, social interaction and games.

Regardless of grades, education has become an important trend affecting the current educational reform in developed countries. From 65438 to 0990, the French government issued a decree on the establishment of a three-year learning stage reform plan for primary education, trying to break the traditional hierarchical concept. Its practice is to divide the education of children aged 2 to 1 1 year into three stages, and each stage generally consists of three academic years. Each stage is called the initial learning stage, including small classes and middle classes in preschool classes. Children are 2 to 5 years old. The second stage is called the basic learning stage, which includes the big class in kindergarten and the first two grades in primary school. Children are 5 to 8 years old. The third stage is called deep learning stage, which includes three grades after primary school. The school age is 8 to 1 1 year.

In the United States, people are also very interested in the potential role of mixed age groups in pre-school education and non-grade programs in lower grades of primary schools, such as the Kentucky Education Reform Act in the 1990s and the Oregon Education Act in the 2nd/Kloc-0th century, which is a reflection of this situation. The form of education regardless of grade has existed since ancient times. In modern times, grade system and class teaching system have played an important role in promoting the popularization and development of compulsory education. However, this system overemphasizes unity and ignores children's personality differences, so it was criticized in the European and American educational innovation movement that began at the end of 19.

The core of the guiding ideology of non-grade education is to attach importance to the differences of children's individual development, allow them to have a past and a future, and let outstanding students and underachievers develop effectively. Secondly, children of different ages mix together and work together. Through social communication, both older children and younger children can learn a lot of knowledge and develop their social skills. Thirdly, regardless of grades, education has also promoted teachers to teach students in accordance with their aptitude and strengthened the relationship between parents and teachers. Finally, the non-grade system is conducive to the connection between the old and the young, so that children can naturally transition from kindergarten education to formal school education.

Although pre-school education in various countries has made great progress after the war, on the whole, formal pre-school education institutions such as kindergartens and nurseries are still difficult to meet the different needs of society. In many countries, preschool education institutions are becoming more and more diversified and flexible.