SWOT Analysis

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S

What is SWOT Analysis?

Acronym for Strengths,

Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats.
Technique is credited to
Albert Humphrey who led a
research project at Stanford
University in the 1960s and
1970s.

What is SWOT Analysis?

Planning tool used to
understand Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, &
Threats involved in a project /
business.

SWOT is a summary of your

Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats

Interna
l
Externa
l

 Strengths - Factors that are likely to have a positive effect

on (or be an enabler to) achieving the schools objectives
Weaknesses - Factors that are likely to have a negative
effect on (or be a barrier to) achieving the schools
objectives.
Opportunities - External Factors that are likely to have a
positive effect on achieving or exceeding the schools
objectives, or goals not previously considered
Threats - External Factors and conditions that are likely to
have

negative

effect

on

achieving

the

schools

objectives, or making the objective redundant or unachievable.

 We will use an example of a teacher

working within a first school who want to
improve the relationships with parents of
his pupils.
The school identified the following objective:
To improve parent-partnership by
encouraging parents to visit the school and
become active members of the community.
Outcome to have more than 50% of
parents spending one day in class per term

STRENGTHS
Highly-skilled teachers.
History of successful Open day
events
School has a strong ethos of
openness, sharing and
commitment to increasing
parental confidence
Parents wanting to get involved
PTA willing to participate

WEAKNESSES
Teachers not available to meet parents often
enough
Current open days events not increasing
voluntary activity
Not enough staff time to plan more events
Staff not clear of their role in the parent
relationship
Narrow focus on open events not partnership
activities
Curriculum too stretched for additional activity

OPPORTUNITIES
Active volunteer committee willing
to plan and organize events
Pupils active in the schools Pupil
Participation Project can be asked
for their opinions and suggestions.
Head Teacher is willing flex
curriculum to free up teacher time
Use parents to contribute to
curriculum delivery

THREATS
Confidentiality is at risk
Pupil coercion to do things
they do not wish to do

STRENGTHS
Highly-skilled teachers.
History of successful Open
day events
School has a strong ethos of
openness, sharing and
commitment to increasing
parental confidence
Parents wanting to get
involved
PTA willing to participate

WEAKNESSES

OPPORTUNITIES

THREATS
Confidentiality is at risk
Pupil coercion to do things they
do not wish to do

Active volunteer committee

willing to plan and organize
events
Pupils active in the schools Pupil
Participation Project can be asked
for their opinions and
suggestions.
Head Teacher is willing flex
curriculum to free up teacher
time

Teachers not available to

meet parents often enough
Current open days events not
increasing voluntary activity
Not enough staff time to plan
more events
Staff not clear of their role in
the parent relationship
Narrow focus on open events
not partnership activities
Curriculum too stretched for
additional activity

Streams Analysis
It is an organizational development
technique which enables the school
team to determine causal
relationships of existing problems in
the school.
Organizations, just like schools, have
core areas of operations that could
be considered as streams.

Streams Analysis
The headings in
the Data
Interpretation
Template can be
considered as core
areas of school
operations.

Provision of
Access

Personnel
Learning
Materials and
Equipment
Physical and
Ancillary
Services
Others

Quality &
Relevance

Learner
Performance
Curriculum
Implementation/
Instructional
Delivery
Staff
Development
Others

Management &
Administration

Stakeholders
Participation
Instructional
Supervision
Environment
Management and
Administration
Others

Performance
Indicators

Organize problems in streams

Provision of
Access
A1

A2

A3

An

Quality &
Relevance
A1

A2

A3

Management &
Administration
An

A1

A2

A3

An

Performance
Indicators

Steps
Steps in
in Streams
Streams Analysis
Analysis
1

Identify problems in each

of the streams
A problem is a situation which is
dissatisfying and falls short of the
expectations & objectives of a specific
group of people.
They should be formulated as existing
negative situations and not as an
absence of solutions.

In stating a Problem
Refrain from stating problems as
Lack of or No or Absence
of or Inadequate or
Insufficient
Instead describe the situation
which causes the lack of or the
absence of something .

In stating a Problem

Refrain from making

judgment statements
as they are vague and
evaluative in nature.

In stating a Problem
Refrain from making two or
more problems co-exist in a
single problem statement.
High absenteeism
rate due to heavy
rainfall which causes
the river to overflow

High absenteeism rate

Heavy rainfall
River overflows

Steps
Steps in
in Streams
Streams Analysis
Analysis
2

Validate problems in
each of the streams.
Ask group members to present
their outputs. Other members
may clarify, add, or remove
problems initially identified by
the group.

Steps
Steps in
in Streams
Streams Analysis
Analysis
3

Prioritize problems per stream

using the Pair-wise method.
Pair-wise is simple prioritizing method
that puts premium on group consensus
and the collective understanding of the
members of the team about the
problems they face.

Step 1:
Place identified problems per
stream in the Pair-wise Matrix.

Problems
1.Insufficient
classrooms to
accommodate
enrollees
2. Dilapidated
classrooms
3. Problem n

1
Insufficient
classrooms to
accommodate
enrollees

2
Dilapidated
classrooms

3
Problem n

Step 2:
Pair-off intersecting
problems.

Problems

1
Insufficient
classrooms to
accommodate
enrollees

1.Insufficient
classrooms to
accommodate
enrollees
2. Dilapidated
classrooms
3. Problem n

2
Dilapidated
classrooms

3
Problem n

1
1

3
3

Step 3:
Count frequency and rank
each problem.

Problems
1.Insufficient classrooms to
accommodate enrollees
2. Dilapidated classrooms
3. Problem

Frequency Rank
04

00
02

3
2

Arrange problems in each stream

following the prioritization.

1.Prioritize problems identified

per streams using the Pairwise approach.
2.Arrange problems in each
stream according to priority.

Steps
Steps in
in Streams
Streams Analysis
Analysis
4

Identify cause-and-effect
relationship of problems.
Determine which problem drives
another problem.
An arrow directed outward is drawn
from the problem that has caused the
other problem.

Provision of
Access
A1

A2

A3

An

Quality &
Relevance
A1

A2

A3

Management &
Administration
An

A1

A2

A3

An

Performance
Indicators

Problem statements with

most of the arrows coming
in are called "effects" or
"symptoms" of the
problem environment,
while problem statements
with most of the arrows
going out are called "root
causes" of the problem