Reading levels of statistical graphs in vocational training students

In this paper we present an exploratory study to evaluate the reading level reached by 1st and 2nd year Vocational Training students of the specialty of hairdressing and aesthetics before the formal teaching of the subject. We propose a classification of reading levels that combines the previous classifications by Curcio and Bertin and we evaluate the reading level reached by the students using the previous classification in a task where students compare the tendencies of two data series and to predict new data. We observe a better performance in the 2nd year students, although none of them reaches the theoretical maximum reading graph level.