Using Data Analysis to Understand Why Ineffective Teaching Practices Persist Undergraduate Education

Despite existing evidence that more efficient teaching methods exist, United States undergraduate education continues to overwhelmingly use traditional methods which have been proven to have worse student outcomes than alternative methods. This study investigates why these practices persist using a literature review of peer-reviewed publications on pedagogy and a keyword analysis of syllabus data from the Open Syllabus Project. From the literature review, it was found that active learning methods outperform lecture on outcome measures such as pass rates and test results. Simultaneously, lectures were found to produce higher failure rates and lower retention rates. From the keyword analysis, it was found that from 2019-2026, lecture remained dominant overall, though its usage did decline in 2025-2026. The methods that replaced lectures tended to be minimally effective rather than effective. Barriers to the adoption of active learning methods were found to exist at both faculty and institutional levels, including a lack of training, time constraints, and resistance to unfamiliar methods. The most effective solutions are those that target change on the department level, create faculty learning communities, and change teaching incentives.