The inclusion of children with special needs into the mainstream regular elementary school classes
brings a professional challenge to teachers. A review of articles on teachers’ attitudes towards
inclusion published during last three decades was conducted. The review of research findings
indicates that effective implementation of inclusion depends on the teacher’s attitude to inclusion,
which is found to be linked to the teacher’s gender, years of work experience in teaching children
with special needs, qualification of teachers, and the type of special need. A survey was conducted
in 2013 on a representative sample of Slovenian elementary school teachers who teach in 7th, 8th
or 9th class and have in their class at least one student with special needs. The findings indicate that
teachers have a neutral attitude to inclusion. Teachers believe that they are insufficiently qualifie in
teaching children with special needs, and that they need more training in this particular area. They
are most in favor of inclusion of children with deficiencies in certain areas of learning, children
with chronic disease, and children with speech and language disorders. They disfavor the inclusion
of children with mental development disorders. They hold a neutral attitude to the use of ICT in
inclusive education, and that the use of ICT contributes more to a child's cognitive, than social
development. They believed that they do not have sufficient competences in ICT supported learning
and assistive technologies. The findings of a survey of Slovenian teachers have shown neither a
link between a teacher’s attitude to inclusion and the teacher’s gender, years of work experience,
experience in teaching children with special needs, nor the teacher’s opinion of his/her own teaching
competences for inclusion. The findings are discussed in light of related studies in other countries.