What do van Toorn (and Noble and Bestley, in their interpretation) mean by ‘practical intellectual’?

In his discussion of the ‘practical intellectual,’ van Toorn describes someone who is ‘actively engaged in critical reflection about the designer’s process of making’. Someone who is a ‘practical intellectual’ is grounded in his or her research, uses practical methods of information collection, uses a practical process, and has a clear goal in mind. As the article describes, a ‘practical intellectual’ is someone who is generally informed and engaged about and with the design practice.