João Batalheiro Ferreira is Assistant Professor and coordinator of the Undergraduate Degree in Design at IADE–Faculty of Design, Technology and Communication. He holds a PhD in Design from the Delft University of Technology, Netherlands (2018) his PhD research focused on the study of teacher-student communication during design studio classes. Between November 2017 and September 2020 he joined the group REDES–Research & Education in Design as a research fellow (group belonging to CIAUD–Center for Research in Architecture, Urbanism, and Design). João holds a Master’s degree in Communication Design by the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Lisbon (2010) and graduated in Product Design by the same institution; he taught design courses at the Delft University of Technology, the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Minho, and the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Lisbon. He worked as a communication designer for the agency Diagonal Design (2007 to 2009) and continues to work occasionally as a freelancer in design projects. João has been involved in Design Education since 2010; he developed teaching modules for courses in the Industrial Design Master courses and the Architecture undergraduate course at TU Delft, where he also lectured and worked as a studio tutor. He also participated in the launch of the Product Design undergraduate course in Minho University (2013). Additionally, he has supervised research projects of graduate students in TU Delft and the Lisbon School of Architecture. João's research has been presented in several international design conferences and symposiums and published in Journal articles and books. More recently, he was a member of the organising committee of the Research & Education in Design International Conference, and co-editor of the conference book of proceedings. The primary focus of his research is design education. Specifically, João has concentrated on teacher-student communication in the design studio. These one-on-one meetings are crucial for design education since they constitute the moment when learning how to design occurs. João has also been interested in developing research methods that contribute to advance the discipline of Design towards higher levels of rigour and empirical grounding for its theories. Furthermore, from his teaching and tutoring experience, João is convinced that fragmented attention and low-level concentration will be a paramount educational problem of the coming decades and this issue raises serious concerns for the quality of design students' academic performance, learning outcomes, and preparation for lifelong learning. Finally, João has been teaching modules on academic writing specifically tailored for PhD design students.