The study investigated elementary school pupils' ideas concerning the concept of electricity and the effect of school instruction on the pupil's views. Pupils of different cultural backgrounds were assessed to ascertain their knowledge in four areas: Relation of certain natural phenomena to electricity; Mental models (images) of direct current in a circuit; Images possessed regarding electricity and electric current. Pupils' ideas were investigated before and after instruction, thus providing information about the effect of instruction on the views of pupils. In construct to the previous findings, certain phenomena (lightning and thunder among them) were related by the pupils to electricity even before those were taught. Evidently, the instruction changed the mental models and images of electricity and electric current.