Collaborative Learning among Military Educators: A Social Network Analysis of Transactive Memory Systems and Organizational Learning

Description

Abstract:
Military educators are expected to continuously develop their instructional skills to adapt to evolving operational contexts. Collaborative learning within and across units supports educators’ professional development by providing access to distributed expertise.
This study examines the collaborative learning networks of military educators to investigate transactive memory systems (TMS), defined as a shared understanding of “who knows what” and how to access that expertise. While prior research has focused primarily on team-level TMS, organizational-level investigations remain limited. Moreover, although social network analysis (SNA) has been widely recommended as a promising approach for studying TMS, empirical applications remain scarce. By integrating TMS concepts into network-based measurement, the study captures perceptions of colleagues’ expertise and learning ties, contributing both theoretically and methodologically to research on organizational-level TMS.
A network survey was distributed to approximately 500 military instructors and trainers across eight Defence training centers in Belgium. Preliminary analyses reveal substantial variation in cross-unit learning and communication patterns across training units, suggesting different organizational conditions for coordination and knowledge retention. These findings provide new empirical insight into how organizational-level TMS can be examined using social network analysis in large, multi-unit organizations.

Period	26 Jun 2026
Event title	INSNA – Sunbelt 2026, Daytona Beach
Event type	Conference
Location	Florida, United StatesShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International