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Within the fruitful discussion about what design research should mean and achieve and the implication for doctoral education, this paper aims to explore the topic regarding the boundaries between project design research and academic design research. There is also a strong movement within the academic milieu in the realm of design, namely within international conferences and research meetings, to discuss methodologies and processes as a paramount contribution to defining scientific research in design. PhD design research in Portuguese universities started slowly in the late 1990s, but is increasingly establishing itself as a worthy degree. This text focuses on an original study depicting the state of the art of the methodological approaches applied in doctoral design research in Portugal. It proposes a Design Research Classification Model and a Design Research Canvas that can be applied to other systematic reviews of design research as a means of synthesising the past to outline the future. It is also a major objective of this work to contribute to a clarification of a methodological framework, which relates practicebased research to academic research.

Recent literature suggests that the development of cognitive skills should constitute explicit learning objectives in design education. The work describes an educational intervention designed with the intention of promoting the creative and critical thinking performance of a group of Portuguese design students. To this end, creativity and critical thinking tests, pre and post intervention, were applied to the experimental group and to a control group. The intervention was based on two fundamental theoretical assumptions: (1) students' thinking skills can be promoted by the introduction of Design Thinking as a learning content, and (2) this work should be complemented by the promotion of students' metacognitive reflection. Comparing the learning process, by analogy, with a backpack journey, a Logbook concept as an educational tool to potentially promote students' self-reflection was developed. Compared with the control group, results indicate a positive evolution of creative thinking skills in the experimental group.

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