Background: Clinical faculty require feedback to guide their development. Although written comments submitted by residents on clinical teaching assessments (CTAs) are potentially a rich source of feedback, little is known about their information quality.
Method: Naturalistic study involving thematic content analyses and concordancing of comments submitted in a sample of 1,601 CTAs.
Results: About half of the CTAs contained comments, and most were related to perceived teacher strengths. Mixed-methods analysis of comments in the "areas for improvement" field revealed that rather than offering constructive criticism, residents vocalized their perceived learning needs. Specific, behaviorally based comments were uncommon.
Conclusions: In their present format, the written comments analyzed by this study seem unlikely to provide faculty with substantive feedback. Greater insight into residents' understanding of the CTA process, including motivational factors, is necessary if academic centers intend to maximize the formative value of CTAs.