The transformation of China's education reform from extensive to connotative development involved a shift from characteristically exogenous and late development to endogenous and spontaneous development. The mechanism behind the shift from rationalism to universalism has resulted in tension between extension and intension in the process of modernization. Reflexive modernity has always existed in historical experience and situations, strengthening the appeal of intension to the right of defining. In terms of the scale effect, the expansion of higher education enrollment made historically significant contributions to the modernization of education in China; however, it also had several disadvantages. China's educational modernization invariably requires solving the problem of large-class teaching and promoting small-class teaching in the process of shifting from extensive to connotative development.