The study of pedagogical design and development for virtual laboratory in science education in higher education is limited. Few tailored pedagogical approaches have been adopted for developing students higher order thinking (i.e. reflective thinking skills) in virtual laboratory enabled learning in the university level. For addressing these, this study borrowed the merits of virtual laboratory and Know-Want-Learn (KWL) reflective thinking approach, with considering the development of students reflective thinking, to support university students to learn physical chemistry concepts. To examine the impacts of this virtual lab with KWL reflective thinking approach on students' conceptual understanding and reflections, a quasi-experimental research was conducted among 30 students in experimental group and 28 students in control group in a university located in the north of China. Positive learning outcomes including were received based on quantitative and qualitative data analysis of pre- and post-test scores, questionnaire, reflection journals and selected interview. The study could inform the pedagogical design and the implementation of virtual lab for developing students' higher order thinking skills in the university level.