Pooja K. Agarwal

Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D., is a cognitive scientist and Associate Professor of Psychology at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she teaches psychological science to undergraduate musicians. She has conducted research on how students learn since 2005, with a focus on retrieval practice and other evidence-based strategies that enhance memory and learning in classroom settings. Agarwal is the lead author of Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning (Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2019), co‑written with veteran K–12 teacher Patrice M. Bain, which translates cognitive science research into practical teaching tools for educators.

Agarwal is also the founder of RetrievalPractice.org, a hub of free, research-based resources for educators worldwide. Her work on the science of learning has been published in leading journals and highlighted by outlets such as The New York Times, NPR, Scientific American, and Education Week. In addition to Powerful Teaching, she has contributed to numerous scholarly and practitioner publications on retrieval practice and classroom learning, and she serves as editor of *Smart Teaching Strong