# Using game-based research approaches to gauge children's perceptions: insights from a food education project

Nicolas Mendez Barreto, Lamprini Chartofylaka, Aurélie Maurice, Nicolas Darcel, Rallou Thomopoulos

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Nicolas Mendez Barreto, Lamprini Chartofylaka, Aurélie Maurice, Nicolas Darcel, Rallou Thomopoulos. Using game-based research approaches to gauge children's perceptions: insights from a food education project. 56th International Simulation and Gaming Association's Conference 2025 (ISAGA 2025), Jul 2025, Stuttgart, Germany. hal-05451208

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# Using game-based research approaches to gauge children's perceptions: insights from a food education project

Nicolás Méndez Barreto<fnref n="1" />, <fnref n="2" /> [0009-0006-9903-9037], Lamprini Chartofylaka<fnref n="2" /> [0000-0003-2369-7843], Aurélie Maurice<fnref n="2" /> [0000-0003-2332-6217], Nicolas Darcel<fnref n="1" /> [0000-0003-1517-5658], Rallou Thomopoulos<fnref n="3" /> [0000-0002-3218-9472]

nicolas.mendezbarreto@univ-paris13.fr

**Abstract:** This paper provides insight into how gaming can be used to explore the children's experience of food, and to envision possible future transitions in their eating habits. The case study presented is part of the ERMES project, an interdisciplinary initiative funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR-23-CE36-0009), focused on primary school children aged 9-10 in the Île-de-France region. The project aims to develop scientific understanding on how children engage with and relay "food messages" in their daily lives, and how these messages influence their attitudes and eating habits. The paper presents and discusses the use of research game-based workshops to capture children's attitudes, preferences, and understanding of nutrition in a playful and engaging manner. These activities not only facilitate data collection but also foster trust and active participation among children. Additionally, the case study highlights the challenges of conducting action-oriented research in school settings, including minimizing researcher influence and addressing scientific bias. Findings suggest that game-based approaches are effective in exploring complex topics like sustainable eating, offering insights into children's peer culture and food-related behaviors. However, the study emphasizes that game-based activities should complement, rather than replace, traditional methods such as observations and surveys. By integrating games into research, the study provides a novel framework for understanding children's food perceptions, contributing to the development of effective food education strategies.

**Keywords:** Food Education, School-Food, Children's Perception, Game-Based Research.

<footnote n="1">¹ Université Paris-Saclay, Physiologie de la Nutrition et du Comportement Alimentaire, UMR 0914, Palaiseau, France</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Laboratoire Educations et Promotion de la Santé, UR 3412, F-93430, Villetaneuse, France</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ INRAE - IATE Joint Research Unit, UMR 1208, Montpellier, France</footnote>
# 1 Introduction

Sustainability in nutrition is a complex and challenging field to navigate, particularly when it comes to understanding how individuals perceive, approach, and practice (healthy) eating habits [13]. This complexity becomes even more pronounced when we focus on children, whose attitudes and behaviors around food are still in development [5, 27]. Recognizing the need for effective approaches to explore children's understanding of nutrition, this "best practice" paper presents the research facilitation methodology of a qualitative study examining children's perceptions, attitudes, and habits related to food, using game-based activities as an innovative strategy to support data collection and encourage active participation in conversations about their understanding of these concepts.

The elements presented in this paper are drawn from the “ERMES – Children as Recipients and Messengers for Health Education” project (Enfants Récepteurs et Messagers pour l'Éducation à la Santé). ERMES is an ongoing interdisciplinary research project funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR-23-CE36-0009). The project fosters a multidisciplinary dialogue by bringing together experts from various fields, including Sociology, Educational Sciences, Informatics, and Economics [25]. ERMES aims to better understand the trajectories of “food messages” —a term we define below— particularly how school children engage with them in their daily lives, how children themselves contribute to relaying them to their entourage, and their impact on attitudes and eating habits.

This paper provides insight into how gaming can be used to explore the children’s experience with food, and to envision possible future transitions in their eating habits. Following this introduction, the paper is structured as follows: Section 2 provides an overview of the case study, including details on the target audience, location, timeline, objectives, and the tools used in the research. It also highlights some of the key challenges faced during the study, particularly those related to the action-oriented research approach and the use of gaming. Section 3 outlines the design of the research methodology and describes the specific game-based activities that were implemented. Finally, Section 4 discusses best practices, drawing on insights from both the case study and relevant literature, and addresses the challenges identified throughout the research process.

# 2 Case study context

## 2.1 Background

The case study presented is conducted within school settings in France, where canteens play a crucial role in meeting children's nutritional needs [3]. Children typically spend nearly half of their day at school, with most eating there twice a day, for lunch and a snack. Beyond simply addressing nutrition, school meals also influence food choices,
shape social norms, and promote an understanding of sustainable eating practices [3]. Recent French policies that encourage organic, quality-labeled products, waste reduction, and vegetarian options emphasize the growing connection between nutrition, sustainability, and education. The school setting provides the advantage of observing how children interact with structured meal environments and school policies, as well as how “peer culture” [10] influences their food-related behaviors, offering valuable insights into the impact of social and institutional factors on dietary habits.

This study is conducted during the school year 2024-2025, across multiple primary schools within the Île-de-France region (Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis). It focuses on CM1 classes (children aged 9-10), representing a diverse range of socio-economic backgrounds. Data collection takes place throughout the school year and involves observations in canteens, classrooms, and courtyards. The goal of this study is to categorize different types of food-related messages (e.g. informational, normative) and the forms or media through which they are delivered to children (e.g. written, oral, or digital). A food message is defined as any oral or written information related to food, originating from media (e.g. a commercial) or real-life situations (e.g. an event in the schoolyard). These messages may take the form of recommendations, such as “you should eat fruit, it's good for your health,” or simple expressions of preference or dislike. They encompass all types of information, advice, or influences related to nutrition, particularly within the school environment. This study aims at exploring their understanding of what defines “good” or “bad” food, the sources of these messages (parents, media, peers.), and specific phrases they recognize or agree/disagree with [1, 24].

## 2.2 Problem Statement

Observing children in natural settings, such as their schools, is a prolonged task, yet it is essential for understanding their thought patterns regarding food-related issues [23]. This methodological approach raises specific challenges, such as the need for appropriate and intuitive tools to gather children’s perceptions, ensuring the right posture to avoid influencing their responses while fostering an atmosphere of trust [14], and addressing privacy concerns. More specifically, this “best practice” paper raises three fundamental research questions:

* RQ1. How can an adult researcher access the ways in which children talk about food?

* RQ2. Can games help to address a complex topic with children?

* RQ3. What challenges regarding scientific bias do we face?

These three Research Questions (RQ) can be detailed as follows:

**RQ1.** To our knowledge, few researchers have studied the circulation of oral or written information related to food in a school setting. Nevertheless, in Maurice's study [22] on teens' perception and uses of nutritional recommendations, two key discoveries emerged: 1. It is difficult for adolescents to explain why it is “good” to eat fruits or
vegetables daily. 2. Even though they don't fully understand them, adolescents use nu-
tritional messages differently based on their understanding of the social interaction they
are in. For example, seeking the teacher's approval during a formal lesson reciting food
messages like a lesson. This variation of discourses through different contexts and cor-
respondents has also been observed in children [20]. Subsequently, to access and study
children's peer culture, we have to be particularly cautious with the ways children per-
ceive us: How can we minimize our influence in children's discourses? How do we
engage with them? What language do we use? When and where is our presence perti-
nent? What is our role as adults in a school setting? When one of the child-participants
asks us to play a game with them, do we accept?

**RQ2.** School-based food education programs often show limited results due to their occasional and top-down nature [16]. In fact, nutrition education schemes are often based on the transmission of educational messages from adults to children. An issue is thus the determination of non-hierarchical education schemes. An option is the use of gaming, while insight into its format and impacts is an ongoing research question [18]. A growing body of research highlights the role of games in nutrition education and behavioural change among children. Serious games and gamification have been shown to enhance learning outcomes and promote healthier dietary habits [8, 2]. In the digital era, educational games come in various formats, including online simulations (ie. *Epi-daure Market* [17]), computer games (Pickit!, Cookit! [9]), while physical activities remain a viable option to engage young learners. For instance, the physical game Mes-tre Chef [15] introduces macronutrient calculation through an engaging, TV-show-inspired format. Beyond education, games serve as research tools by enabling real-time data collection and analysis. Learning analytics track player interactions to assess cog-nitive and behavioural responses [4], while game-based assessments offer insights into learners' progress and engagement [34]. Does this dual function positions gaming as a powerful approach for both advancing nutrition education and conducting empirical research on dietary behaviours in children?

**RQ3.** Answering RQ1 and RQ2 demanded a great reflexive effort in terms of re-
search methodology, mostly around the researcher's posture, interactions and attitudes
towards children and school personnel. During our observations, we were frequently
invited by children to participate in their games. These were excellent opportunities to
achieve mutual understanding, according to G.H. Mead's [26] philosophy of action.
While taking part in children's activities is a widely accepted research method [7], it is
not a common practice to detail how the relationships between participants and re-
searchers are managed [28]. Absence of clarity in methodology construction and appli-
cation and lack of data surrounding researchers and participants social positions can
result in a strong research bias. If games can be useful to enter children's worlds, how
can we be aware of the influence we are exercising in our field of research?

Accessing and understanding children's peer culture is undeniably challenging. The
discussions briefly presented here have led to the development of several "good
practices” that will be further explored in this paper. Before delving into this discussion, the detailed research design is presented to the following questions.

## 3 Research Design and methodology

According to the points discussed above, in our case study, we chose to explore various aspects of participants' relationships with their eating habits and discourses, not only through the methodologies outlined in the ERMES project, such as participant observations [23], but also by exploring the dynamics of game-based research workshops as instruments for data collection. The schedule of activities is presented in Figure 1:

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 1.** Overview of data collection methods including game-based research workshops</figcaption></figure>

Here, we present in more detail and discuss the first workshop, which took place in October 2024. Two researchers from the ERMES team introduced themselves to all four classes through the “Exquisite Food Portraits” workshop. This 45-minute/1-hour workshop involved dividing the children into groups of three, with each group tasked with filling in drawings of human-like figures (Figure 2) with various food illustrations.
<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 2.** Human-like figure used for “Exquisite Food Portrait” workshop</figcaption></figure>

Each body part of the figure corresponds to a different question:

* Head (referring to norms, rules, and rational behaviours): For this part, we asked the children to draw a head with foods that are important for “growing strong”.

* Body/Heart (referring to emotions, feelings, tastes, and pleasures): For this part, we asked the children to fill the body with their favourite foods or foods they dislike.

* Feet (referring to social grounding and real-life practices): For this part, we asked the children to draw feet with the foods they usually have for breakfast.

We describe our workshops as “game-based” because they integrate core elements of play that foster imaginative interaction and collaborative engagement, key to our research methodology. While not following traditional game structures (e.g., competition, win/lose conditions), they incorporate game mechanics such as goal-setting (assigning foods to body parts), symbolic role-play (imagining what makes a body strong or happy), and co-creation (working in groups to build a shared food portrait). These elements encourage children to approach the activity not as a test, but as a space for personal expression.

Following Sanchez and Romero [30], we understand games not solely by formal rules, but by the player's subjective involvement—what matters is whether the activity
is experienced as play. The non-evaluative setting and open-ended task design in our workshop created the conditions for ludic engagement, allowing children to explore personal and cultural meanings of food in ways that were emotionally resonant, creative, and socially co-constructed. This activity served two purposes: it introduced the presence of researchers in the classroom, helping students become familiar with their presence, while also offering a playful and indirect way to gather initial insights into students' perceptions of food. By creating a space for personal expression, the workshop facilitated the collection of rich, qualitative data in a natural and organic manner.

# 4 Best Practice Discussion

Following the presentation of our game-based research activity, this section discusses our overall methodological approach, returning to our initial questions.

## 4.1 RQ1. How can an adult researcher access the ways in which children talk about food? Can games help? About participant observation and researchers' positioning

The adult ethnographer that wants to engage in children’s games, activities or conversations faces numerous difficulties. First, participant observation in a school setting is only possible thanks to collective work between the participants, the ethnographer and the institutional agents in charge of the school’s functioning. To carry out our observations we had to explain who we were, what we wanted to do and what we expected. Logically we had to discuss these things with the children-participants, but we also put a lot of energy and thought into our relationships with schoolteachers and school employees. A crucial point of discussion was the extent of our authority and our legitimacy as adults being present in a school setting. To consider ourselves as responsible for children’s “good behavior” or being excessively vigilant of their safety prevents the development of collective action that can allow for mutual comprehension [19]. On numerous occasions we had to explain to children and to the school personnel that we were not there to enforce the school’s discipline. In some cases, this means engaging, along with children, in illicit activities (e.g. participating in candy exchanges within school walls or playing with food while we were sitting at the canteen tables).

Being part of a peer-group within a school classroom means for us to spend most of the day with the participants of the study; to share the numerous spaces they navigate during a typical school day. Concretely, we are present, and we engage with the children-participants: In the classroom, in the halls, in the schoolyard or in the school's canteen. We learned to play with them, but we also learned to eat with them, to work with them, we even learned to joke with them while they joked with us (always between boundaries of complicity and mutual respect). We also discovered that following them in short school trips to museums or cinemas outside of school allowed us to deepen our understanding of in-class relations and interactions. Additionally, during these trips we could grasp their perception of the world outside of school: their “special places” in the neighborhood, their neighbors, their friends, their go-to food-joints, etc. Being with
them outside of school meant to share significant moments that deepened not only our scientific comprehension of the situations we observed, it also helps us to remember that through our work we create an emotional and social bond with the participants. This bond is fundamental for our research, it allows us to enter the field, to engage with participants, to understand their perspectives and, most importantly, it is the main reason why participants accept talking to us or why they initiate the interactions themselves.

## 4.2 RQ2. Gamifying research: How to address a complex topic with children?

Discussing complex health-related topics with children like sustainable eating, a topic which is influenced by numerous individual and societal factors [33], can be a challenging task. Incorporating game-based learning seems like an effective approach, as it is particularly valued among Generation Alpha, the target group of our current study. Research consistently shows that game-based learning boosts children's motivation, enhances their performance, and increases their engagement in the learning process [12]. Here, we would like to highlight some good-practices that we discovered through our first game-based activity with the children: The Exquisite Food-Portraits.

This workshop's first objective was to establish good bases for our relation with the student-participants. Because it was our first time encountering the children, we wanted to propose an activity they were already familiar with. After some brief discussions with the class's teachers, we realized that they often used personification as a pedagogical tool with the classes participating in our study. As a method, drawing is both playful and powerful, offering students a unique way to use visual expression as a symbolic "language" to convey ideas, concepts, and complex phenomena [6]. According to Sondergaard and Reventlow [32], drawing not only brings thoughts and emotions to life but also nurtures a sense of "community" between the child and the researcher—an essential bond in research with pupils. In other words, drawing-based activities could also give us an insight into children's perception of the food they eat and the recommendations regarding the food habits they remember. In consequence, if the drawing was structured in different parts, each part referring to an abstract idea associated with food, we could gather more diverse information around children's perception of food. Following the personification idea, it was decided to present a human-like figure separated in three parts, each part making reference to a food-related subject.

The workshop proposed to the participants was ultimately complex in its structure and demanded sustained attention from the participants for a long period of time (45 minutes to 1 hour). To make the activity more dynamic and engaging, drawings were collective. Children were separated into trios, each participant had to draw a section of the human-like figure, fold it (in order to hide their drawing) and, finally, pass it to the participant to their left. This procedure allowed us to not only encourage participant interactions during the workshop but to also give the activity a less demanding rhythm. Instead of one 45 minutes to 1 hour drawing session we had three 10-minute drawing sessions with in-between resting time.
However, we were still facing the problem of participant comprehension to a com-
plex activity. To address this issue, we decided to introduce the activity by giving an
example of a portrait in real time. In a short time, with suggestions from the teachers
and the students, we made a collective portrait illustrating what was expected at the end
of the activity.

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 3.** Explaining the activity</figcaption></figure>

The resulting drawings (Figures 4,5,6) were very appreciated by the children and by the teachers. In one of the classrooms, the participants used these portraits to mark and decorate their assigned school-bag spot.

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>Figs. 4. Three Resulting Food Portraits</figcaption></figure>
In addition, these portraits gave us precious information about the children’s food habits, food preferences and their knowledge regarding nutritional recommendations. Due to lack of control over potential bias during the experimentation, the information provided by this workshop serves no scientific use. However, it helped us improve our participant observation grid and the focus of the following research-workshops. Although not suitable for formal analysis, the “exquisite food-portrait” game became a crucial point in our research and allowed us to forge the basis of future questioning.

## 4.3 RQ3. What challenges regarding scientific bias do we face? On researcher's neutrality and objectivity

During the planning phase of our methodology, we encountered many approaches concerning the place of an adult researcher working with children. First, we discovered Isabelle Danic, Julie Delalande and Patrick Rayou's [29] perspective. These authors strongly encourage the researcher to refuse engagement in children's activities or games. Even though the ethnographer shares a space with the children-participants, they engage in activities only as a witness or as an assistant, "he rarely takes part in children's games, he avoids (...) introducing himself in children's stories, and by doing so, avoids determining who is right or wrong. By doing otherwise, he would be adopting a point of view in the observed situation, thus losing the neutrality he desires" (p. 117). To maintain researcher neutrality, we had to make significant concessions. It meant hiding our status and our interests from children. It also meant that we were not going to be able to ask children what they think about food in school, thus preventing us from accessing the variety of reasons, symbols or uses they associate with food. Moreover, the reward summoned by this sacrifice wasn't interesting. As Lignier [19] points out in his criticism of Danic, Delalande and Rayou's recommendation, this non-participant ethnographic method defends the "illusion" of a "truth" or an "essence" behind children's activities and discourses. By refusing to engage with children, and maintaining a "neutral" posture, the ethnographer could then access this "truth" that escapes the understanding of the subjects they observe.

In order to hear children talk about food in school we had to ask them about their food, and then ask them again: What do they think of it? Why do they eat it? What memories does this ingredient evoke? Why is this plate disgusting and yesterdays was delicious? Did they read this week's canteen menu? Did you pay attention to the food-related information available? etc. But, by doing so, we were accused by some of our colleagues of exercising excessive influence in our field-work, educating the children and forging our own results. To face this dilemma, we decided to take inspiration from old works in Anglo-Saxon sociology [11, 21] that the "neutrality-oriented" approach completely ignored. In this perspective, interacting and engaging with the participants under study is not a scientific bias but an important research tool that allows for a deeper understanding of children's peer culture and the social dynamics through which they actively contribute in cultural production and change.

However, adopting this participant approach meant paying particular attention to our impact in the field and producing data around this question. In this optic, the trial-and-
error approach in our research becomes a fundamental point in our methodology and documenting it becomes one of the main good practices we would like to share. It would be disingenuous to claim that our immersion within the participant group unfolded seamlessly, without any social missteps or moments of discomfort. On numerous occasions we acted in ways that disrupted our engagement with the participants.

An illustrative incident occurred in October 2024, the day following a football match between two prominent teams of the Spanish league. During recess, one of our researchers was approached by Lisa-Marie, a child participant, who informed him that she no longer wished to engage with him for the remainder of the observation period. Surprised, the researcher inquired about her reasoning. Lisa-Marie explained that she had seen him singing a victory song in support of the winning team alongside another participant. Given that the majority of children at the school—including Lisa-Marie—were supporters of the defeated team, this act was perceived as a betrayal. Not fully grasping the depth of her sentiment, the researcher laughed and told her: “it’s just a game, it is not that important”. However, Lisa-Marie did not share his amusement. She walked away and refused to talk to him for several hours. When the researcher later apologized for not taking her seriously, she replied: “No, I don’t accept your apology. You are against me now. Go away!”.

Lisa-Marie's strong reaction helped us understand how important being part of a group is for some participants. By laughing and minimizing the importance of the subject, the researcher underestimated the importance of peer groups in daily interactions and the negotiation skills children employ to maintain group cohesion, even “if we don't support the same team”. Documenting such “interactional errors” [21] allows us to understand how our own incorporated perceptions find their way into our fieldwork; how little do we know about being a child at primary school. However, through reflection and dialogue, such incidents can inform new approaches to repairing and understanding social exchanges within the research context.

5 Conclusion

While game-based activities can effectively complement traditional data collection methods, they cannot fully replace techniques such as observational studies or surveys. On the one hand, observations, as a direct form of interaction, provide valuable insights into children's behaviors and attitudes towards food [2]. However, observing all children in real-time and capturing the “food messages” they exchange with peers or adults in the school environment—such as teachers or extracurricular activity facilitators—presents a significant challenge for researchers. This challenge is particularly pronounced in crowded, in situ settings like the school canteen, a place where food-related discussions naturally emerge, but where researchers cannot observe the entire population. On the other hand, children’s eating behaviors and food choices are influenced by a variety of external factors, such as parental guidance, socio-economic conditions, and peer interactions [31]. These elements play a critical role in shaping children’s nutritional attitudes and cannot be fully addressed through game-based activities alone. The
insights gathered from the presented workshop will guide the focus of subsequent ses-
sions, ensuring that the most relevant topics are addressed. This will be particularly
valuable in refining data collection instruments for the upcoming focus groups, bio-
graphical interviews, and surveys with both children and their parents, scheduled for
the coming months. Additionally, post-workshop interviews (for example the “draw-
and-tell” interviews proposed in the work of Wright-Pedersen et al. [35] could be orga-
nized to further enrich the data collection process.

In conclusion, by incorporating game-based activities, an alternative framework for data collection is established—one that creates an engaging space for children to express their thoughts and experiences. The deliberate choice of physical, non-digital games proved to be a valuable methodological strategy, fostering trust and proximity between researchers and participants, while enhancing group cohesion during activities that explore complex issues. However, there is not enough scientific evidence allowing us to conclude that game-based methodologies are in fact more efficient in facilitating children’s expression than other methods. Nonetheless, current scientific evidence remains insufficient to determine whether game-based methodologies are more effective than traditional approaches in facilitating children’s expression. Further comparative research between game-based and more conventional methods is encouraged.

**Acknowledgments.** This study was funded by the French National Research Agency within the framework of ERMES - *Enfants Récepteurs et Messagers pour l'Éducation à la Santé* project (Children as Receptors and Messengers for Health Education, ANR-23-CE36-0009).

**Disclosure of Interests.** The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

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