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Everyone wants to continue developing over time, in a variety of areas of our lives. But certain aspects of the self are particularly important for attempting self-change. The author, a psychologist and professor at the University of Toronto, presents her framework, the Wheel of Self. She explains that the self has five distinct parts: motivation, behaviour, emotions, mind and body. When most of us try to change, we often focus only on our behaviour, forgetting that behaviour is influenced by the other four parts of the self. In the end, she provides key insights about how the self really works-and how to facilitate its development.

When we want to learn a new skill in life, we try out a new behaviour. Some behaviours fulfill their intended purpose; others do not. Feedback-signals from the environment that tell us whether or not the behaviour we produced had the intended effect-is essential to changing, adapting or modifying human behaviour. That's what learning is all about. Learning theorists and practitioners agree that feedback is a prime enabler of learning. Yet in higher education, it is spotty, ill-timed or utterly missing. The authors-who head up the Self-Development Lab at the University of Toronto-show what can be done about it.