The Wiley International Handbook of Mentoring

5Constructivism and Mentoring

Arthur Shapiro

University of South Florida, USA

One may ask, what on earth does constructivist thinking have to do with the theory and practice of mentoring? Well, a lot.

Since constructivism is a relatively new term and idea, I will get to the heart of what it means. It may sound odd to say this, but everyone constructs the way they look at things, the way they understand and look at the world. That is, I will look at how people build their own world from their perceptions. If there are twins, do they look at the world exactly the same? If there is a brother or sister, do they see things the same? Have those siblings developed the same perceptions of their parents, and the same views of school, work, people, money, TV, art, music, sports, and fun? Obviously, not.

My wife is a twin, but the way she looks at the world is quite different than her twin, even though they were brought up in the same family. As an older twin, she picks up on which twin is older about eight or nine times out of ten correctly. Her younger twin simply does not look for which twin is older or younger. It is not important to her. Of course, my wife recognizes twins way faster than I do, because that is more significant to her.

When my brother and I once described our mother, my wife exclaimed, “You two are describing two entirely different women.” Essentially, that was true, since we had different experiences with her. As a younger child, he saw her as tall, while I saw her ...