Teachers are frequently told to use "research-based strategies." At the same time, they face unreasonable workloads, with inadequate time and resources to engage with the research and evaluate it themselves. In the same professional development workshops that elevate the importance of research, teachers are also told to focus on strategies, be efficient, and implement changes to their classrooms immediately. Spending time processing their learning or digging into theory is dismissed as impractical. Critically thinking educators who actively and skillfully analyze, interrogate, and reflect need to carefully consider what the advice to be "research-based" really means. This article looks at three critical questions educators can ask when examining research, illustrated by examples of research studies from the field of trauma-informed education, an educational area in which the phrase "research-based" gets used frequently. This makes it a prime example for how educators can employ critical questioning.