PEN  - The Professional Enhancement Network -  is a project organized by Betsy Decyk (Philosophy and Psychology) and Elizabeth Hoffman (English and Faculty Development).  It is supported by the Center for Faculty Development at California State University, Long Beach.

The Goals:
   1) To create a community of faculty which is both supportive and flexible
   2) To create opportunities to be more reflective about our work
   3) To share ideas and insights
   4) To recognize the wealth of teaching and professional experience which faculty bring to California State University, Long Beach

Some Philosophy:
    “Cooperation [is] a mutiplication of hands to get a job done.  Collaboration is a multiplication of heads as well.  When you collaborate with others, you partner up; you bring the best of who you are and what you know to the table, as does your partner and together you think and act in ways that might not have been available to either of you alone.  The differences in your experiences and respective slants on the world will enrich immensely the thinking that results.  At their best, collaborators don’t think exactly alike, but are sufficiently in harmony with one another that their differences create new insights, and each is taught by the other.”  (Tom Morris, If Aristotle Ran General Motors, New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1997, p. 61).

The Design:
     In the PEN project people work collaboratively to improve teaching.  There are partnerships which meet together at their own convenience.  In addition, there are general PEN workshops two or three times each semester.   In the general meetings we learn new strategies for teaching, gain additional perspectives, and deepen our understanding of our profession.

Participation:
     In the Spring of 1999 30 people participated in the PEN project teams.  There were 11 peer coaching teams in which lecturers worked together and there were 3 mentoring partnerships in which a lecturer was paired with a tenure-track faculty member who had previously been a lecturer.  In the Spring of 2000 there were 18 teams with a total of 40 people and fifteen “at large” members.

Spring, 1998:   A mentoring program proposed by Betsy Decyk

Summer/Fall, 1998:  Project Planning
                             Betsy Decyk, lecturer,  Departments of Philosophy and Psychology
                             Elizabeth Hoffman, lecturer, Department of English and Project Leader in the Center for Faculty Development
                             Troy Myers, lecturer, Department of English

Fall, 1998:    initial general meeting to welcome new and continuing lecturers
                  ”Conversations about Teaching and Scholarship - Becoming More Reflective”  - Susan Nummedal, Department of Psychology and the
                              Center for Faculty Development
                   brainstorming and discussion of the PEN project

Spring, 1999:  Pilot Project
                           partnerships set up
                           PEN meeting 1: Case Study - late arriving students¹
                           PEN meeting 2: Case Study - hostile reactions to innovative teaching²
                           PEN meeting 3: Participant Reflection on the Project

Fall, 1999:            PEN meeting 1: A Community of Shared Values
                                                   prompt: what has been your best teaching experience so far this semester?  What made it so good?
                                                   Classroom Assessment Techniques³
                                                   partnerships set up
                           PEN meeting 2:  Collaborative Communication

Spring, 2000:       PEN meeting 3:  Case study - first day of class^{4
                           PEN meeting 4:  Teaching with Technology
                           PEN meeting 5:  End of the Semester Celebration}
_________________
¹”Paula Jefferson,” Case Studies for Faculty Development by Rita Silverman and William M. Welty, Center for Case Studies in Education, Pace University, 1992.
²”Just Tell Us What You Want,” Marilla Svinicki, To Improve the Academy, Vol. II, 1992, pp. 271-2.
³Thomas A. Angelo and Patricia Cross, Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers, 2nd edition (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1993).
⁴”Bill Jasper’s First Night,” by Nick Brockunier, Alan Heffner, ed. Barbara Millis, To Improve the Academy, Vol II, 1992, pp. 287-291.