Occupational safety and health education is usually lecture-based, and students generally have limited retention. Immersive virtual reality (IVR) facilitates students to learn and explore more actively in safe environments. However, learning with the aid of IVR may not guarantee better learning achievement, practical skills, and positive attitudes. It may also distract students from their cognitive processing. Studies suggest that appropriate pedagogy should be supported. The science-technology-society-environment (STSE) learning approach was applied, which coincides with occupational safety and health education's focus and emphasises students' observation, exploration, experiment, and problem-solving in their lives. The study combined the STSE learning approach and IVR (STSE-IVR) to improve occupational safety and health education. The results showed that students using STSE-IVR had higher learning achievement, practical skills, competencies, attention, and meditation than those in the conventional-IVR group (providing direct instruction). The students' learning behavioural patterns were also compared and discussed.