Development of a benchmarking framework to assist educationists and schools on sharing strategies and application of best practices : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

Benchmarking is used by organisations for comparing performance and for the learning and implementation of best practices. While benchmarking remains a widely recognised improvement tool for practitioners, its application by school systems and schools still remains to be investigated. In this research, an exploratory pragmatic multiphase mixed methods research approach is adopted to investigate the use of benchmarking by school systems and schools. Through the preliminary literature review, school systems and schools were recognised to be using benchmarking informally without being aware of its application. Further research showed that informal benchmarking brought improvements to school systems and schools. It is envisaged that school systems and schools can obtain greater improvements through the systematic use of benchmarking. Therefore, a benchmarking framework has been developed to assist school systems and schools in the planning and application of benchmarking. At the start of the research, a preliminary conceptual model of effective benchmarking was developed and this model has guided the research methodology. Then, a literature review was conducted to validate the use of benchmarking by school systems and schools. Next, a quantitative-qualitative survey was administered to school systems (n = 20) and schools (n = 183) to determine the frequency of benchmarking used by school systems and schools and its contribution to their performance, along with an identification of the benchmarking techniques used. The survey also recognised school systems and schools obtaining effective performance through benchmarking. Subsequently, qualitative structured interviews were conducted with these school systems (n = 4) and schools (n = 19) for an exploration of their benchmarking techniques and success factors. Finally, findings from all three phases of the research were integrated to develop a benchmarking framework to assist school systems and schools in the planning and application of benchmarking for the learning and implementation of best practices. The theoretical contributions of the research include the acknowledgement of use of benchmarking by school systems and schools and the confirmation of the association between benchmarking and performance improvement. The practical contribution is the Benchmarking Framework developed to assist school systems and schools in the application of benchmarking approaches and to guide them in the identification and implementation of best practices. Finally, the limitations and future research opportunities have been outlined. One of the most significant research opportunities is to apply the Benchmarking Framework for an actual benchmarking project for the learning and implementation of best practices

Stability of Oscillating Gaseous Masses in Massive Brans-Dicke Gravity

This paper explores the instability of gaseous masses for the radial oscillations in post-Newtonian correction of massive Brans-Dicke gravity. For this purpose, we derive linearized perturbed equation of motion through Lagrangian radial perturbation which leads to the condition of marginal stability. We discuss radius of instability of different polytropic structures in terms of the Schwarzschild radius. It is concluded that our results provide a wide range of difference with those in general relativity and Brans-Dicke gravity.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figures, to appear in IJMP

Dynamics of Axial Symmetric System in Self-Interacting Brans-Dicke Gravity

This paper investigates dynamics of axial reflection symmetric model in self-interacting Brans-Dicke gravity for anisotropic fluid. We formulate hydrodynamical equations and discuss oscillations using time-dependent perturbation for both spin as well as spin-independent cases. The expressions of frequency, total energy density and equation of motion of oscillating model are obtained. We study instability of oscillating models in weak approximations. It is found that the oscillations and stability of the model depend upon the dark energy source along with anisotropy and reflection effects. We conclude that the axial reflection system remains stable for stiffness parameter $\Gamma=1$, collapses for $\Gamma>1$ and becomes unstable for $0<\Gamma<1$.Comment: 24 pages, no figure, accepted for publication in publication in Eur. Phys. J.

Stellar Filaments in Self-Interacting Brans-Dicke Gravity

This paper is devoted to study cylindrically symmetric stellar filaments in self-interacting Brans-Dicke gravity. For this purpose, we construct polytropic filamentary models through generalized Lane-Emden equation in Newtonian regime. The resulting models depend upon the values of cosmological constant (due to scalar field) along with polytropic index and represent a generalization of the corresponding models in general relativity. We also investigate fragmentation of filaments by exploring the radial oscillations through stability analysis. This stability criteria depends only upon the adiabatic index.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in EPJ

Temperature Dependence of a Sub-wavelength Compact Graphene Plasmon-Slot Modulator

We investigate a plasmonic electro-optic modulator with an extinction ratio exceeding 1 dB/um by engineering the optical mode to be in-plane with the graphene layer, and show how lowering the operating temperature enables steeper switching. We show how cooling Graphene enables steeping thus improving dynamic energy consumption. Further, we show that multi-layer Graphene integrated with a plasmonic slot waveguide allows for in-plane electric field components, and 3-dB device lengths as short as several hundred nanometers only. Compact modulators approaching electronic length-scales pave a way for ultra-dense photonic integrated circuits with smallest footprint