Collective intelligence – superior performance by groups compared to that of the individuals that compose them – is often achieved via social information use. However, collective intelligence has rarely been studied in terms of social learning. This is partially because social learning strategies (i.e. "when" and "who" to copy) are often hard to observe in a natural group setting. Our main goal in this article is to show that tandem-running recruitment by Temnothorax ants offers a promising model to study the interaction of social learning and collective intelligence. We first review the role of tandem runs in the ecology and collective behavior of these ants, who use them to share information about the locations of valuable resources. A key advantage of Temnothorax ants as a model system is that each instance of information sharing – each tandem run – can be easily observed. Moreover, the specific information transferred can be readily inferred by tracking the history and subsequent behavior of leader and follower. We then propose new investigations into how social learning via tandem runs affects their collective performance. Finally, we discuss how the synthesis of the two fields of social learning and collective intelligence can shed light on the role of feedback from learning in improving collective performance over time.