Various studies have widely utilized mixed reality (MR) in primary and secondary (K-12) education. Nevertheless, there has been relatively no explicit focus on a substantial amount of studies that are reviewed systematically in order to present and suggest the educational benefits of MR technology for the development of learning environments. The present systematic literature review describes the current state of knowledge and practices using MR in K-12 education and provides guidance for educators and scholars focusing on instructional design contexts by critically appraising and summarizing the existing research. It also outlines a wide range of results yielded by quantitative, qualitative and mixed-method studies to investigate potential benefits, difficulties, and effectiveness of MR environments across various learning subjects. Overall, 21 studies published from 2002 until 2018 in 18 international peer-reviewed journals were analysed, with 11 and 10 studies regarding primary and secondary education, respectively. This review informs educators and scholars about insights and evidence gained by prior findings on the current state-of-the-art research so that provide a contribution of scientific knowledge and innovation using MR environments in different learning subjects. Implications for practice and research are discussed in detail, as MR has the potential to influence students' engagement, participation, skill acquisition, and embodied learning experience for knowledge transfer within well-structured instructional design contexts.