Dr Justin Ridge

Primary research interest
Research skills - how can students learn key research skills and how can we assess this.
About me
I graduated with a BSc (Class 2.1) in Biochemistry and Microbiology from the University of Sheffield (UK) in 1994. I then went on to gain my PhD, also from Sheffield, focussing on the role of the polypeptide chain in determining energy transduction in the bacterial photosynthetic reaction centre.
I then moved to Australia and between 1998 and 2008 I was a post-doctoral researcher in the School in a number of labs gaining experience in diverse fields such as environmental microbiology and molecular neuroscience.
Since 2008 my role has been as a teaching-focused academic.
Research focus and collaborations
My current research focus is on teaching and learning. In particular, it revolves around research skills and their explicit teaching and assessment. Are we doing this? Are we teaching the skills required in the lab/workplace?
I also have an interest in how core biochemical, microbiological and molecular biological knowledge can be delivered to students of the health professions (medicine, physiotherapy, nursing etc.) in an engaging and relevant way.
Teaching interests
Teaching core biochemical, microbiological and molecular biology knowledge to undergraduate and postgraduate students from a wide range of programs including BSc, MMBiol, and MD.
- BIOC2000 Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (Coordinator)
- BIOC2900 Advanced Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (Coordinator)
- BIOC3006 Biochemistry of Metabolism in Health and Disease
- BIOC6001 Introduction to Molecular Biology Laboratory
- BIOC7001 Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory (Coordinator)
- MEDI7100 Foundations of Medicine
- MEDI7200 Developing Skills in Medicine
Selected publications
- Batmanian, Laura, Ridge, Justin and Worrall, Simon Biochemistry for health professionals. Chatswood, NSW, Australia: Elsevier Australia, 2011.
- Ridge, Justin P., Ho, Ada M.-C. and Dodd, Peter R. (2009) Sex differences in NMDA receptor expression in human alcoholics. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 44 6: 594-601. doi:10.1093/alcalc/agp052
- Ridge, Justin P. and Dodd, Peter R. (2009) Cortical NMDA receptor expression in human chronic alcoholism: Influence of the TaqIA allele of ANKK1. Neurochemical Research, 34 10: 1775-1782. doi:10.1007/s11064-009-9941-8
- Ridge, Justin P., Ho, Ada M.C., Innes, David J. and Dodd, Peter R. (2008) The expression of NMDA receptor subunit mRNA in human chronic alcoholics: Influence of cirrhosis and genotype. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1139 10-19. doi:10.1196/annals.1432.053
- Etheridge, Naomi, Ridge, Justin P., Lewohl, J. and Dodd, Peter R. (2008). The effects of alcohol on the brain. In Marc D. Binder, Nobutaka Hirokawa and Uwe Windhorst (Ed.), Encyclopedia of neuroscience(pp. 1034-1036) Berlin, Germany: Springer.
Researcher biography
My research looks to understand how effectively expectations are communicated, and how we can use this knowledge to implement methods that improve the effectiveness of this communication. My research has several major themes.
These are:
- Understanding the current expectations of all stakeholders and whether they believe those expectations are being met.
- The effectiveness of the means used to communicate expectation between stakeholders: do learners interpret information, such as learning objectives, in the same way as the instructors that wrote them? Do learners understand how assessment is used to evidence their competency in specific skills?
- Are learning activities and assessment aligned to explicit learning goals?