Bailin is a contemporary philosopher of education known for her work on critical thinking, creativity, and argumentation theory. She has contributed to debates on the nature of general thinking skills and their role in education, challenging skeptical positions about domain-general reasoning capacities.
Defended the existence of general critical thinking skills against domain-specificity skeptics
Contributed to the philosophy of creativity and its role in rational inquiry
Engaged critically with John McPeck's subject-specificity thesis in critical thinking education
Authored work bridging informal logic and educational theory