Abstract
Cognitive developmental models have typically to cope with the challenge to coordinate the description of general competences with the actual variability of contexts where they are required. The present proposals consider the cognitive structures not as some general competences which have to be effective in any case, but as meaningful organizations of knowledge. Starting from an analysis of cognitive functioning with two levels (the present focus of processing and the underlying implicit knowledge), two developmental pathways are proposed: the structural abstraction process which transforms the focus of processing, and the structural construction which improves the organization of knowledge for semantic reasons. These pathways are viewed as embedded (one being grounded on the other one) and alternating. Their identification is based on evidence that numerous authors have obtained. Some correspondences with other developmental models are underlined, mainly semantic networks, theories of explicitness and of analogy, ideas which highlight the importance of functioning (actions and interactions) as the actual scene of developmental change.