Enthusiasm is a quality of efficient teachers, but teacher enthusiasm can be influenced by the way students respond. Teacher enthusiasm might therefore be difficult to maintain in compulsory courses, in which students sometimes have negative dispositions towards the content. This study focused on a science course in an elementary teacher education degree in Australia. Data were collected during and after the course, by open-ended questionnaire (569 responses) and interview (25 students and one teacher). It was concluded that teacher enthusiasm can still be maintained at an effectual level even when students are not necessarily positively predisposed to the subject.