As the teacher education in China gradually evolves from the closed one into an open one, and with the greater pressure from the competition among universities, the transformation of normal universities is an inevitable choice. The problems that normal universities need to face up to are the proper goal orientation and the setting of appropriate development goals. Through the comparison and interpretation of the development goals of current normal universities in China, this paper finds similar tendency in the development types and the choices of features. Goal orientation is vital to the development of normal universities. Therefore, when setting and implementing development goals, a sound understanding about expressions like “the features of operating schools” and “comprehensive universities” should be improved, and a rational thinking about the fundamental questions should be engaged in as well.