This paper reports on an exploratory pilot study conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of various science teacher preparation courses in raising pre-service teachers understanding of the nature of science (NOS). Undergraduate (n1=229, n2=211) and postgraduate (n1=81, n2=53) students in four courses, across five campuses and two universities, were assessed using the Student Understanding of Science and Scientific Inquiry (SUSSI) survey (Liang et al., 2008) both pre- and post- course. Paired samples t-tests on individual items of the SUSSI revealed limited change in the pre-service teachers' understanding of NOS in the various courses examined. In addition to the tightening of methodological controls a more explicit reflective approach will be adopted in the next round of data collection.