When I was 11, my Religious Education teacher set us the task of memorising all the books of the Old Testament for a pop quiz. While some of my classmates seemed daunted by this, I remembered that years earlier a teacher had taught us the New Testament books using a song. I figured, if it worked for those books, why wouldn’t it work for these too!

That evening, while sitting in the kitchen with my mum, I managed to fit all of the books to the tune of – prepare yourself – ‘Nobody Likes Me Everybody Hates Me Guess I’ll Go Eat Worms.’ I have absolutely no recollection of why we chose that song… perhaps it was the catchy, nursery rhyme quality that sticks in your head like an ear-worm (pun very much intended). Either way, it worked.

Of course, I was the only one in my class who actually completed this task.

Looking back on that moment has made me reflect on how I learn as an adult. I’ve never used a song to memorise anything since (although I’d LOVE to belt out an agenda in a meeting one day ), but it did teach me something valuable about how I retain information, and how it has shaped my learning ever since.

Jason Teteak’s Rule the Room series has been a bit of a revelation to me as a facilitator and trainer. In his course ‘How to Target all Learners Simultaneously’, he explores how adults learn best, and it ultimately comes down to one thing: we need to know WHY. If we don’t see the value or relevance of what we’re learning, our brains will tune it out. It’s not about being spoon-fed the answers, but about being engaged and stimulated.

Have a look at the poster I created below showing the four categories of adult learners.

I discovered that I am primarily a Talk learner, with Step coming in a close second. This basically means I learn best when I can listen to ideas and talk them through in my own words, while following a clear, structured process. It’s about externalising ideas – repeating them, sequencing them, and making them make sense in my brain.

So that silly song I made up in my kitchen? It wasn’t just a quirky trick – it was my first natural attempt to self-organise information: spoken out loud, in a rhythm, with clear steps. A musical checklist, if you will. I obviously didn’t know what “learning styles” were back then, but looking back, it was the beginning of figuring out how my brain works.

Which of those learner types resonates with you the most?