This paper presents a brief survey of the foundations of and the future prospects for a situated, collaborative approach to the education of professional translators. It first outlines a theoretical foundation for a pedagogical approach based on authentic project work, holistic translator competence and learner autonomy that has been evolving over the past two decades. Some recent synergistic trends in cognitive science and learning theory are then introduced as a potential watershed for further research on and development of learner-centered approaches. Finally, a case study of a pedagogical translation project carried out recently in a translator education program is presented to illustrate some ways of situation learning in a collaborative classroom and to serve as a springboard for refocusing the goals and methods of research into the genesis of translator competence.