This dissertation takes as its point of departure the many problems that Dutch secondary-school classics students have in using their dictionary while translating authentic texts. The main goal is... Show moreThis dissertation takes as its point of departure the many problems that Dutch secondary-school classics students have in using their dictionary while translating authentic texts. The main goal is to complete the first phases of an educational design study in order to lay the groundwork for a curriculum for dictionary use in classics education. By taking the approach of situated cognition, we learned that translating authentic classical texts is inherently complex, because of the ever-changing lingual ‘situations’ that the students need to deal with. A ‘one size fits all’ procedure to manage these ‘problems’ is not a sensible approach. Observing expert learners, we found that their look-up process can be described as a feedback loop, continually monitoring their progress and critically testing their hypotheses. They decided efficiently when to employ the affordances available in a dictionary (and when not to). We argue that Cognitive Apprenticeship (CA) is an effective didactic method to teach this kind of complex situated problem solving. Following CA, the practical outcome of the project consists of the Look-up Curriculum and five design principles for dictionary instruction. These were constructed in collaboration with a teacher design team, that also designed example exercises for the everyday teaching practice. Show less
